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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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POINTED PAPERS. 



BY THE REV. T. L. CUYLER. 



1. THOUGHT HIVES. 12mo., with portrait . $1.50 

"Good nature, human sympathy, and Christian zeal kindle all 
Mr. Cuyler's pages into a magnetic warmth. Genial, open-hearted, 
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as a household word." — N. Y. Evangelist. 

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with moist eyes." — Lutheran Observer. 

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ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS, 
New York. 



Pointed 


Papers 


FOR 




%X)t Christian Life* 


BY 

THEODORE L. 


/ 

CUYLER, 


PASTOR OF LAFAYETTE AVENUE CHURCH, BROOKLYN. 



^ 



-' 



NEW YORK: 
ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 

530 Broadway. 
1879. 



oF Congress 



&*%« 



Copyright 1878. 
By Robert Carter & Brothers. 



Cambridge: 

press of 

john wilson and son. 



ST. JOHNLAND 

STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, 

SUFFOLK CO., N. Y. 



^ 



TO THE READER. 



The title of this volume was suggested by an intimate 
friend who has long urged me to publish a series of prac- 
tical papers on the Christian life, — from the soul's first 
steps towards Jesus Christ clear onward to its final home- 
coming into Heaven. If these chapters shall bring light 
to any bewildered soul, or strength to the feeble-hearted — 
any relief to the overloaded or joy to the sorrowing, then 
my honest labor of love will not go unrewarded. 

T. L. C. 



CONTENTS 



Not Far Off 9 

Two Kinds of Inquirers 14 

Build for Eternity! 22 

Take up thy Bed and "Walk 30 

The Keturning Dove 37 

One Honest Hour with Jesus 44 

The Conversion at the Toll-booth 50 

Christ, and His little Ships 59 

Follow thou Me! 67 

Jesus the Light-Giver 74 

Jesus the Joy-Bringer 82 

The Silver Spring — And its Lessons 89 

After Conversion — What Next? 96 

Teaching Beginners how to Walk 103 

What are you a Christian for? 109 

Wholly for Christ 117 

The Christian the World's Bible 124 

"Master!" 130 

Cautions to Christians 138 

The Stone that stops the Blessing 144 

What every Backslider needs 153 

The Great Seven-fold Prayer 159 

Christ as the Soul's Trustee 165 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

How well Jesus knows Us 174 

Seven Things we know about Jesus 182 

Held by the right Hand 190 

"So did not I." 198 

rooted by the rlvers 206 

Help from the Throne 214 

The Secret of Power • . . 221 

Life More Abundantly 227 

The Soul's Eagle-flight 233 

God's Singers 237 

A Golden Motto for every Christian .... 242 

The Hands of Christ 251 

Ups and Downs 258 

Fear not; Only trust! 264 

The Everlasting Arms 271 

A Lift for the Overloaded -278 

God's Kindness to the Crippled 286 

Four Anchors 293 

Rest for the Restless 301 

Refining the Gold 310 

Time and Place for meeting Jesus 318 

The Face towards Jerusalem 325 

Nearer to God 333 

Treasures in Heaven 341 

Light at Evening-time 348 

Knowing our Friends in Heaven 356 



NOT FAR OFF. 



/^~\UR Lord told a certain discreet and 
^-^ courteous lawyer that he was " not 
far from the kingdom of God." Whether 
he ever entered into that kingdom and made 
his calling sure, we are not informed. But 
there are a great many like this lawyer, in 
all our congregations. They are not inside 
the ark, but they are not far away from its 
open door. 

Every Sabbath these people are at the 
house of God ; their constant attendance 
shames some irregular "fair weather" church- 
members. They listen attentively, putting 
themselves within close range of the arrows 
of truth. They listen approvingly, and some- 
times say to their pastor " that sermon hit me 



10 POINTED PAPERS. 

last Sunday." They put themselves volun- 
tarily within a good atmosphere, where they 
are surrounded by the presence and the 
prayers of God's people. I always have 
strong hopes of the conversion of any man 
or woman who will steadily place themselves 
right in front of a faithful sin-denouncing and 
Christ-preaching pulpit and keep their ears 
wide open to the truth. 

Yet to all such we would like to say very 
kindly, you are in a very dangerous position. 
The Cross of the Crucified Jesus is in full 
view of your eyes, and his voice of love 
is constantly falling upon your conscience. 
Many have been converted close by you. 
The breeze of heavenly influence has seemed 
to fan you as it passed so very near to your 
yet unconverted heart. A single "Lord! I 
will follow thee," would have landed you 
within the kingdom long ago. Your danger 
is that you will trust to the very nearness to 
the doorway, and will delay the attempt to 
enter until it is too late. To miss the door 
of heaven by an ell, will be your perdition. 



NOT FAR OFF. 11 

When God locked the door of Noah's ark, 
and shut the patriarch in, there may have 
been several of his neighbors within a bow- 
shot of the entrance. The bare thickness of 
that door made all the difference between 
being safe within, or drowning in the de- 
vouring deluge. Barely to miss heaven, will 
make hell more dreadful. 

You tell me that your lives are moral. 
This is right and commendable. I honor 
you for it. It is better to be moral than 
immoral — better to be chaste, and honest, 
and reverent, and benevolent, than to be 
unclean, profane, knavish, and revengeful. 
It is better to believe God's Word than to 
be a disbeliever. The fewer stains you have 
to be wiped away by God's pardoning grace, 
and the fewer bad habits you have to give 
up, the better for you. The minister who 
makes light of your honest moral life, com- 
mits a rude blunder, and does shameful in- 
justice to you, and to his own office. If 
your Divine Lord were on earth, and were 
to meet you, he might very probably say 



12 POINTED PAPERS. 

to you as he did to the polite Scribe, "Thou 
art not far from the kingdom of God." But 
he could not say " Thou art in the king- 
dom." He could not say "Thou art my 
disciple." Jesus never made an obedience 
to the last five Commandments of the Dec- 
alogue a ground of Christian discipleship or 
of salvation even to you, kind, amiable and 
honest as you are. He would assuredly say, 
"Except ye repent, except ye be converted, 
ye can not see the kingdom of God." Faith 
that trusts on him alone for salvation, and 
not on your own respectable life, and the 
obedience that follows him, are the indis- 
pensable steps to salvation. You admit that 
you have not taken these decisive steps. 
Then, however near you are, you are not 
"in Christ." 

A man may be wrecked within a ship's 
length of the light -house. Lot's wife was 
not far from Zoar, yet she miserably per- 
ished. Near the summit of Mount Wash- 
ington is a rude cairn of stones that marks 
the spot where a young lady who was over- 



NOT FAR OFF. 13 

taken by the darkness (without a guide), 
died of exposure and nervous fright ! The 
poor girl was within pistol-shot of the cabin 
on the "tiptop"; its cheering light was just 
behind the rocks ; jet that short distance 
cost her her life! So, my dear friend, }-ou 
may be, at last, picked up dead, just out- 
side the gateway of your Father's house. 
While its hospitable door of love stands 
open, hasten in! You are losing the very 
best part of this life, and the whole of the 
life to come, while you so recklessly linger 
away from Jesus. It will be a terrible thing 
to be lost — not far from Heaven ! 



TWO KINDS OF INQUIRERS. 



FN the Acts of the Apostles we read of a 
-*- certain man that "he went on his way 
rejoicing." In the Gospel by Matthew we 
read of another man that "he went away 
sorrowful." There were certain resemblances 
between these two persons. They were both 
men of high social rank — one of them being 
a Jewish ruler, and the other the treasurer 
or chamberlain of Candace, the Queen of 
the Ethiopians. Each of these persons ap- 
pears but once upon the sacred page, and 
then vanishes away. That the young ruler 
was Lazarus is an ingenious theory; but not 
sufficiently well supported by facts to make 
it very plausible. Both these two men were 
sincere inquirers after salvation. The one 



TWO KINDS OF INQUIRERS. 15 

consulted Christ himself; the other conversed 
with an inspired evangelist or ambassador of 
Jesus. Up to this point there was a marked 
resemblance between the young ruler and 
the Ethiopian treasurer. 

The difference was still more marked and 
vital. The traveller from Africa who had 
been up to Jerusalem goes back with a 
copy of the Hebrew Scriptures in his hand. 
As he sits in his chariot, he occupies his 
time in Bible study. The passage of the 
Word which he had reached was that pa- 
thetic description of the Messiah which Isaiah 
drew when he depicted him as a sheep led to 
the slaughter, and as a lamb silent under its 
shearers. "Of whom speaketh the prophet 
this?" inquires the Ethiopian of Philip, whom 
he had taken up to a seat beside him in the 
chariot. Here is an "inquiry-meeting" ex- 
temporized on the spot. Philip, full of the 
new Gospel, opens his mouth and explains 
the passage in Isaiah as referring to that 
Divine Redeemer who had been lately cru- 
cified at Jerusalem. An immediate blessing 



16 POINTED PAPERS. 

attends the faithful preaching of Christ Jesus; 
for the soil was mellow in the lord-treasurer's 
heart, and the evangelist let fall the only 
seed that can sprout into a true regenera- 
tion. The Holy Spirit blesses his own truth. 
And the first evidence of conversion which 
we detect in the Ethiopian is a desire to be 
baptized. The prompt acceptance of Christ 
is followed by an equally prompt confession 
of Christ. Having given his heart to the 
Saviour, the new convert gives him his hand 
also in open alliance. He has done his duty, 
and therefore he "goes on his way rejoicing." 
The tradition mentioned by Eusebius that this 
African nobleman became a proclaimer of 
the Gospel in Arabia and Ethiopia has some 
grounds of probability. At any rate, he be- 
came a clear, distinct light on the sacred 
page to guide others to the cross, and the 
example of his prompt confession of Christ 
is bright and beautiful. 

The other inquirer was a light also; but 
only a beacon-lantern hung up over a sunken 
wreck, to warn off others from the danger- 



TWO KINDS OF INQUIRERS. 17 

ous spot. That young ruler who came to 
Jesus, with the inquiry on his lips, "Good 
Master, what good thing shall I do that I 
may have eternal life?" has always been to 
me an object of intense interest and sympa- 
thy. We are taken with his frankness, and 
our highest expectations are excited that he 
will, like Matthew and Nathanael, promptly 
grasp the boon that is offered him. There 
is something exceedingly touching in the art- 
less naivete with which he says to Jesus: "All 
these commandments have I kept from my 
youth up. What lack I yet? 77 Scores of 
just such persons are to be found in our 
modern congregations, and in nearly every 
inquiry-meeting we encounter them. They 
desire to be saved. They have a large 
"invoice" of good works to exhibit. They 
have rather fattened their self-esteem by 
feeding on the rich morsels of their own 
merits. Having done so much for them- 
selves and by themselves, they stand ready 
to do more yet, provided they can do it in 
their own way. 



18 POINTED PAPERS. 

The Omniscient Saviour read that self- 
righteous youth to the very bottom; and he 
thrust the probe into him until it touched 
the quick. He knew perfectly well what the 
ruler's besetting sin was, and just what am- 
putation was required in order to save his 
soul. Selfishness was that sin. The knife 
must cut that out, or there was no hope 
of a life eternal. The prize was magnifi- 
cent, and the sacrifice must be proportion- 
ate. Give up your possessions and take up 
a cross for me! That was Christ's close 
and searching test. Nothing less than that. 
"Follow me, and thou shalt be rich in 
Heaven." A glorious offer; but Heaven was 
a great way off, and the wealth of this world 
was just at hand and had possession of the 
young ruler's heart. He did not^ so much 
own them as they owned him. If he had 
been willing to part with them, and to cast 
in his lot with the lowly, persecuted Son of 
God, he might have been immortal in the 
same illustrious bead-roll with Peter, the 
fisher of men, and Matthew, the gatherer 



TWO KINDS OF INQUIRERS. 19 

of tribute for the King. But alas ! he clings 
to his besetting sin and goes away sorrow- 
ful. As the original Greek has it, "he went 
away frowning. 1 ' Disgust at the hard terms 
and disgust with himself clouded his brow. 
The frown which lowered there was a type 
and a precursor of the heavier frown which 
is likely to meet him when he stands before 
that rejected Saviour, as his rejecting Judge. 
Dante, in his "Inferno," pictures this unhap- 
py young man as blown about like a withered 
leaf in the regions of the lost — "the shade 
of him who made, through cowardice, the 
great refusal.'' 1 

This phrase describes exactly the condi- 
tion of thousands. They are offered a great 
salvation on the simple terms of quitting 
their own favorite sins and their own self- 
righteousness, and of doing God's will. The 
issue is sharp and distinct. It is yes or no. 
"Either you must give up your bottle or 
give up your soul, 77 said a pastor to a 
drinking man in his parish, who was under 
deep conviction. Like the young ruler, he 



20 POINTED PAPERS. 

clung to his besetting sin and went away 
frowning. 

Felix felt the probe going in very deep 
when Paul preached to him about chasti- 
ty, while he was sitting with his adulteress 
by his side. He clung to his lusts, and 
tells his best friend to " Go away for this 
time. When it is convenient, I will send 
for thee." 

Perhaps this paragraph may fall under 
the eye of some one who is awakened by 
God's Spirit and is exceeding anxious about 
his soul. The pressure of that Divine Spirit 
upon your conscience is to let go your sin 
and cleave to Christ. One or the other you 
must give up. You can not keep both. The 
young ruler could not serve Christ and Mam- 
mon. What your besetting sin is God know- 
eth; but the root of it is in your heart. That 
heart must become Christ's, and then you too 
may go on your way rejoicing. To shut Christ 
out of the heart is to shut him out of your 
life and yourself out of heaven. The lov- 
ing Spirit is pressing you. Yield ! Jesus 



TWO KINDS OF INQUIRERS. 21 

calls you : " Follow me ! " On your own de- 
cision hangs the alternative either to "go 
rejoicing " into Heaven's glory, at the last, 
or to "go away frowning," into endless self- 
torture and despair. 



BUILD FOR ETERNITY! 



~"\IG deep, and lay your foundations well ! 
**-^ These words we have rung in the 
ears of almost every inquirer with whom we 
have ever conversed. In pressing this friend- 
ly admonition upon each awakened soul, we 
felt that we were acting in the line of God's 
teachings. Our Lord exhorted his hearers 
to build upon the rock and not upon the 
quicksand. The history of about every revi- 
val furnishes a list (either longer or shorter) 
of those whose serious feelings prove to be 
evanescent. There was "feeling" and only 
feeling. There was no abiding faith and no 
regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. And 
so like "the morning cloud and the early 
dew," their transient impressions soon passed 
away. Happy is it for such, if while under 



BUILD FOR ETERNITY! 23 

this temporary seriousness they do not enter 
into solemn church-covenants which they can 
not fulfil. 

Here then is a danger, a most clear and 
palpable danger against which every inquirer 
after salvation should be faithfully warned. 
A seeking soul is only safe in the hands of 
the Divine Spirit. To learn the will of the 
Holy Spirit, to obey the voice of the Spirit, 
to co-operate with the Spirit is the first and 
chief thing. If God's Spirit, is so dealing 
with an awakened man as to give him a 
deeper sense of his own sinfulness and weak- 
ness, then is it an awful mistake for any 
Christian to speak " false peace " to that 
man. It sends him to a quicksand when 
the Spirit is so dealing with him as to lead 
him to Jesus the Rock. Too many inquirers 
are deluded with the idea that they can be 
saved too easily. Their own guilt, and the 
heinous nature of sin, and their inherent 
worthlessness and weakness, are not suffi- 
ciently realized. They are constantly urged 
to ''accept Christ" before they feel a gen- 



24 POINTED PAPERS. 

uine need of Christ and honest desire to pos- 
sess him in their hearts. Temporary relief 
is all they want, and all they gain. The 
medicine is pressed upon them before they 
truly apprehend their own deadly disease ; 
and so the remedy proves to them to be 
only an anodyne. This is shallow mockery. 
Against this fatal mistake, that wise win- 
ner of souls, Charles G. Finney, most care- 
fully guarded himself, and tried to guard oth- 
ers. So did Dr. Payson of Portland. They 
both aimed to lead sinners to feel their own 
depravity before a holy God, to feel the wick- 
edness of sin and its desert of a "wrath to 
come " ; they subsoiled with the plough of 
divine truth which ripped to pieces self-right- 
eousness and other secret sins, and turned 
these secrets up to the daylight. Souls thus 
intelligently convicted could be intelligently 
guided to the atoning Jesus as the pardoner 
and life-giver. Such thorough work made 
thorough converts. The great majority of 
them stood fire. Many of the soundest Chris- 
tians of the last generation were converted 



BUILD FOR ETERNITY ! 25 

to God under the wise, prayerful and ''pain- 
ful " labors of Payson and Finney. 

If this article falls under the eye of any 
awakened sinner let me most affectionately 
press upon you a few vital truths. You are 
a sinner. God tells you that in his Word. 
Pray that he will discover to you your own 
guilt, and make you feel it. Sin is in itself 
an exceedingly abominable thing. Not only 
does it bring perdition after it, but it deserves 
perdition. "Against thee only have I sinned, 
and done this iniquity in thy sight " is the 
confession you ought to make. With con- 
fession of sin there must be sincere renun- 
ciation of it. As the person who is sick of 
a bilious fever can not get well until the 
"bad humors" are purged out of the body, 
so you must get the sin out of you, before 
you are cured. 

This is the Holy Spirit's work. Co-operate 
with him. Entreat him to do a thorough 
work upon your conscience. No matter if 
the process costs pain and self-humbling and 
tears, or wakeful nights. Do not, I entreat 



26 POINTED PAPERS. 

you, let your "hurt be healed slightly.' 7 Bi- 
ble repentance involves both hatred of sin, 
and a turning from it with honest endeavor 
to obey God. The more uncomfortable you 
feel about your own sins, the more you loathe 
them, the more you will realize your need of 
Jesus Christ. The Jewish leper understood 
what a scabby wretch he was when he cried 
out, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make 
me clean." Bartimeus knew well the pitchy 
darkness around him, when he prayed so 
vehemently that he might receive his sight. 
Your soul too is leprous with guilt. Your 
spiritual eye has been put out by sin. Je- 
sus alone can cleanse your evil heart ; he 
alone can open your blind eyes. He alone 
can give you the new life. Here comes in 
the mighty meaning and the glorious efficacy 
of atoning blood. That alone cleanses. Je- 
sus tasted death for you. He bore your sins 
in his own body on the tree. The worse you 
see yourself to be, the more need that you 
avail yourself at once of his atonement and 
put yourself at once in his hands. 



BUILD FOR ETERNITY! 27 

Coming thus to Jesus is the vital step. 
This is conversion when it is done with the 
whole heart. You are shut up to this. No 
other name is given whereby you can be 
saved. " Other foundation can no man lay 
than that is laid which is Jesus Christ." 
Every thing else is sand. You are build- 
ing for eternity. Build to last ! I have 
seen flimsy houses whose walls bulged and 
cracked ; the trouble was that they were 
hastily run up on a worthless foundation. 
Some Christian professors' lives show most 
shocking cracks and lean over most alarm- 
ingly. They were badly built on a bad 
foundation. You are working now for the 
judgment-day which will try every man's 
work of what sort it is. Dig deep and lay 
your foundation solidly. 

"Just what is meant by building on Christ? 77 
We answer that you are to renounce all idea 
of saving yourself, and trust Jesus Christ to 
save you. As you have no strength, Jesus 
offers to put his infinite arms beneath you. 
Instead of self-gratification as the chief end 



28 POINTED PAPERS. 

of life, Jesus implants a new principle to base 
your life upon. He gives an inward grace 
which is something more than a happy emo- 
tion ; it is a controlling power to fortify you 
in temptation and to hold you as an unseen 
anchor holds a vessel in a storm. When you 
sincerely embrace Jesus as your Saviour and 
rest on his atonement for pardon, when you 
look to him for daily direction, lean on him 
for support, and are joined to him in heart- 
union, then you may be sure that you have 
got the everlasting rock-bed underneath you. 
Christ's work for you and his work within 
you is the corner-stone. On that you may 
build as long as you live, piling up grace 
upon grace, and one good deed upon another. 
If Christ's work within is genuine you must 
be a better man or woman, more truthful, 
kind, honest, loving, and pure. A man can 
not have Jesus in his soul and no one find it 
out. And if other people do not find it out, 
then your conversion is a hollow sham. " By 
their fruits " Christians must be known. The 
best looking tree that bears no apples is a lie. 



BUILD FOR ETERNITY! 29 

Faith without works is dead. A well-built 
life is a structure where tongue and hand, 
and brain and heart, are each day adding a 
godly word or deed, under the inspiration of 
Christ's love. Perfect you never will be in 
this world ; but oh ! how diflerent your life 
were, if Jesus were not in your heart ! Now, 
then, my friend, make thorough work of it; 
let God have his own way with you. Don't 
dictate to him. Simply seek to know what 
Christ would have you do, and then do it. 
Ask him not to let you be deceived. Test 
yourself by the Bible. Religion is not guess- 
work. Every one who becomes Christ's ac- 
tually " knows whom he believes." Christ 
will know you. When the great day of trial 
comes, your foundation will be found as solid 
as the gates of heaven. 



TAKE UP THY BED AND WALK! 



"TT7HY did our Lord single out one suf- 
* * ferer amid the many at the pool of 
Bethesda ? There were a multitude of impo- 
tent folk lying in the ' ' five porches " or col- 
onnades, waiting for the moving of the wa- 
ters. But we do not read that the Divine 
Healer wrought a miracle for any more than 
this single invalid. The reason, I conjecture, 
is this : no one at that pool of mercy was so 
pitiably unbefriended as this man. He had 
lain there for a long time, and been tanta- 
lized by seeing other and nimbler patients 
reach the healing waters before he could 
creep in. Others had friends to help them. 
But this poor forsaken creature had no 
one. not even a wife or child, to assist him 
into the pool. Suffering often makes people 



TAKE UP THY BED AND WALK ! 31 

selfish. Perhaps, then, the loving Lord in- 
tended to rebuka the selfishness of the neg- 
lectful, as well as to show his sympathy for 
the neglected, by curing this one friendless 
cripple on the spot. There is a beautiful 
lesson here for us. Beside every pool of 
privilege, or mercy, in human life, there are 
one or more unbefriended sufferers, whose 
trials are aggravated by seeing others re- 
lieved, but no relief comes to them. Jesua 
teaches us to look after those who have no- 
body to care for them. 

This is one lesson to be learned at Bethes- 
da — which signifies the " house of mercy." 
There is another lesson which we would press 
home upon all our unconverted readers. It 
fits their case exactly. In all our congrega- 
tions are more or less of spiritually diseased 
persons, who are seen every Sabbath in 
God's House of Mercy. Their disease is sin. 
Whether blinded by it, or lamed, or with- 
ered, or paralyzed, the root of the malady is 
a sinful unbelieving heart. They expect, at 
some time or other, to become Christians 



32 POINTED PAPERS. 

Not one of them expects to "make his bed 
in hell." Yet every one of them does lie, 
and persists in lying, upon a bed of criminal 
delay — waiting for they can hardly tell what. 
A word now to each of these. 

One of you, perhaps, is waiting for a pow- 
erful revival, when the waters will be greatly 
troubled, and then you will be cured. But 
Christ nowhere tells sinners to wait for revi- 
vals. " Now is your day of salvation;' 7 and 
now don't mean to-morrow. Jesus Christ is 
as close to you to-day as he ever will be. 
No one else can ever cure your wicked 
heart. Here is another unconverted person 
who is waiting for some " angel," in the 
shape of a powerful, thrilling sermon, or a 
peculiar providence which shall arouse you 
and do the needed work. You are mis- 
taken. If you thus dictate to God, he will 
not do your bidding. A greater than any 
angel is beside you now ; neither is there 
salvation in any other. It is not more ser- 
mons you need, nor startling providences ; 
you need Jesus. 



TAKE UP THY BED AND WALK! 33 

Another is waiting for "more conviction.' 7 
How much do you require in order to accept 
Christ ? How much did the cripple at Be- 
thesda ? If you admit that you are a sinner, 
and that unless Jesus saves you you will be 
lost, this is enough conviction to start with. 
To tell Grod that you will never serve him 
until he smites you with intense sorrow for 
sin, is an insult ; it increases your guilt. No 
"angel" is going to trouble your stagnant 
heart with healing power while you are in- 
sulting Grod. ISTor need you wait for some 
wonderful conversion. To each one of you 
lingerers and loiterers in sin, let me say 
you are cheating yourself with the devil's 
delusion. 

Your immediate duty is all condensed into 
that one pithy sentence which Jesus spake 
to the cripple at the pool: "Arise, take up 
thy bed and walk." You are on your bed 
now. You put yourself there by your own 
sin. You have kept yourself there by your 
own choice. Every sinner is a sinner be- 
cause he chooses to be ; and you are no 



34 POINTED PAPERS. 

exception. Jesus commands you to repent, 
and trust him, and follow him. The mo- 
ment ) 7 ou are willing to obey, he gives you 
strength to obey. Christ commanded that 
poor, miserable creature, at Bethesda, who 
had been "in that case" for thirty-eight 
years to "stand up." What, on those weak 
and withered limbs? Yes; for he could have 
no others to stand on. And the moment he 
obeys, and makes the honest attempt, a new 
power shoots through the nerves and mus- 
cles. The man is not lifted up. He rises 
up himself, and on his own limbs. But Jesus 
furnishes the strength. The man wanted to 
get up, and made a resolute effort to get up, 
and a supernatural power came into him, 
and enabled him to get up. His part in 
this happy transaction was faith; Christ's part 
was grace. Put the two together and you 
have the history of every conversion that 
ever took place in our world. 

Now what hinders every unconverted sin- 
ner who reads these lines from being healed 
at once ? To lie still means guilt, uneasiness of 



take up thy bed and walk! 35 

conscience, and final death. It means a wast- 
ed life here, and hell hereafter. The first act 
you honestly perform to please Christ breaks 
the spell. The first prayer you breathe sin- 
cerely for a new heart, and the first sin you 
refuse because Jesus bids you, puts you on 
your feet. These steps are all your steps. 
But the Divine Love moves you to take them, 
and gives you the sufficient strength. I heard 
a man pray and speak last night, who for fifty 
years has lain on a bed of abominable im- 
penitence. He is now walking — and walking 
with Jesus. His first steps were feeble and 
awkward. But he means, with God's help, 
never to go down on that mattress of sloth 
and unbelief again. Another man I heard at 
that meeting who had often lain in the stu- 
pefaction of strong drink. He took hold on 
Jesus' mighty hand, and immediately his feet 
and ankle -bones received strength. He is 
to-day "walking, and leaping, and praising 
God." 

Here is the transcendent lesson of Bethes- 
da. It teaches every sinner who desires sal- 



36 POINTED PAPERS. 

vation that all he must do is to obey Jesus. 
The "angel" you wait for will never come. 
Death will soon stand beside your "bed" of 
guilty delay. Jesus is already beside you 
with his warm heart of love. His short 
simple command is, "Arise, take up thy bed 
and walhP 



THE RETURNING DOVE ; 

OR, THE SOUL'S FLIGHT TO THE SAVIOUR. 

''HnilEN Noah put forth his hand and took 
"*■ her, and pulled her in unto him into 
the ark." The poor dove had found no rest 
for the sole of her foot. Weary with her 
flight — finding not a tree or bush to light on 
and not a grain of food to eat — the tired bird 
flies back to her old home. Noah watches 
her as she flutters toward the open window. 
So he puts forth his hand and catches the 
weary bird, and draws her in unto him into 
the ark. As we look at the pretty creature, 
eating its seed or curling its head under its 
glossy wing, we fall into a meditation about 
that bird. 

It represents to us an uneasy, wandering 
soul. Perhaps it is a picture of your soul, 



38 POINTED PAPERS. 

kind reader ! You have long been looking 
for rest. You have flown a great way after 
it. You have tried one pursuit after another, 
one place after another, or one pleasure after 
another; but none of them gave you a solid 
and substantial repose. None of them sat- 
isfied you. Perhaps you have tried money- 
making ; but a full bank-book still left the 
soul empty. Perhaps you tried to draw one 
gill of pure happiness out of a cask of sen- 
sual pleasure; but tried in vain. Perhaps 
you flew up on a perch of political ambi- 
tion ; but found yourself to be as sadly off 
as that eminent British statesman, whose 
friends wished him a "Happy New Year!' 7 
"It had need to be a happier one than the 
last year," replied the disappointed man; "for 
I did not see one happy day in it. 77 Perhaps 
you sought in a bright home and hearthstone 
for a genuine heaven upon earth; but the 
angel of death alighted on the couch or 
the crib which held your household treas- 
ures, and you discovered that you could build 
a house, but could not find a rest. 



THE RETURNING DOVE. 39 

Even a sorer uneasiness still may be trou- 
bling ) 7 ou. Not only are your coveted treas- 
ures of earth unsatisfying; but your religious 
hopes hang on a spider's web. You do not 
feel safe. You have no clear, well-grounded 
hope of final salvation, such as God's inspired 
Word approves. You do not feel any confi- 
dence that your present mode of thinking, be- 
lieving, or living is securing for you the high- 
est usefulness, or can promise you a peaceful 
death and a glorious hereafter. "Do you feel 
at rest for time and for eternity?" I see you 
shake your head doubtfully. Then you are 
not at rest! 

Let me tell you in one word just what 
you need. You need Christ! "Lord!" 
exclaimed that gifted young genius, Ar- 
thur Hallam — "Lord! I have tried how 
this thing or that thing will fit my spirit. 
I can find nothing to rest on, for nothing 
here hath any rest itself. Oh ! centre and 
source of light and strength; oh! fulness of 
all things! I come back and join myself to 
thee ! " 



40 POINTED PAPERS. 

"He heard the voice of Jesus say, 
Come unto me and rest ; 
Lay down, thou weary one, lay down 
Thy head upon my breast." 

And Hallam's soul found rest only when it 
returned to the Divine Satisfier, the Divine 
Surety, and the Divine Support. 

When Noah's dove found no rest for her 
weary foot, what did she do? We read that 
she ''returned into the ark. 77 Here is your 
duty. God says: "Return unto me! 77 This 
is both the command of the Divine Authority 
and the invitation of the Divine Love. When 
the dove returned, she brought nothing but 
herself. So you can bring nothing to Jesus 
except one poor, guilty, dissatisfied sinner. 
Do not bring excuses ; bring yourself. Do 
not bring your sins. Do not bring your self- 
righteous merits; they will not pay for the 
transportation. Jesus only wants you. And 
you want Jesus. Then come to him just as 
you are, and just what sin has made you — a 
weak, crippled, and unsatisfied sinner. The 
"prodigal, 77 in Christ's matchless story, only 



THE RETURNING DOVE. 41 

brought one ragged, shoeless, hungry wretch 
to his father's door; but that was all that the 
good old gray-head wanted to see. Jesus 
wants you! 

Remember that there was only one ark 
for Noah's dove to fly to. Beneath it was a 
drowned world. Around it spread the de- 
vouring deep. So God has provided only 
one ark for your weary, wandering soul. 
" There is none other name given under 
Heaven whereby you can be saved." "Nei- 
ther is there salvation in any other." God 
has not provided a variety of religions, and 
left us to take our choice. He leaves us no 
alternative. To the prince and the peasant, 
to the genius and the ignorant boor, God 
offers alike everlasting life, through the atone- 
ment of his well-beloved Son. Jesus saves ! 
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of your 
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the 
world to save sinners. And the winsome 
word of love he speaks to you is: "Come 
unto me, all ye who are heavy laden, and I 
will give you rest." 



42 POINTED PAPERS. 

Observe, too, that Noah's ark had only 
"one window." All the light and air came 
in through that one open casement. Beauti- 
fully does that single open window testify 
unto us the illumination of the Holy Spirit. 
Beautifully does it teach us that every soul 
which flies unto Jesus must come in through 
the drawing and the renewing influence of 
the Divine Spirit. Regeneration brings a 
sinner unto Christ; and regeneration is by 
God's Spirit, and by him alone. 

The window is open, my friend ! The 
blessed Spirit is drawing you now. He is 
striving with you. Co-operate with him. Go 
whither he leads. Whatever he bids you, 
do it. Quit the sins you have loved, and 
with eager, determined faith hasten to Christ. 
In fact, the coming in through that open win- 
dow into the blessed fulness and grace and 
strength and love of the crucified Son of 
God is saving faith. It is not the opinion, 
but the act that saves your soul. When you 
do what the poor weary dove did — when you 
give over every thing else in the wide uni- 



THE RETURNING DOVE. 43 

verse, and just betake yourself to the one 
only ark of safety, and settle down there — ■ 
your first vital duty is done ! 

The infinite Love will put forth his hand 
and draw you in ! Into union with Christ ! 
Into renewing grace and supporting strength ! 
Into peace ! Oh! wondrous peace; oh! sweet, 
satisfying peace ; oh ! peace of God that pass- 
eth understanding ! No fears of death and 
hell invade the soul, for perfect love hath 
cast out fear. To every soul that enters 
this ark comes the assuring voice of Jesus: 
" Let not your heart be troubled. My peace 
I give unto you ; not as the world giveth 
give I unto you. 7 ' This is the peace which 
the world can not give nor take away. 



ONE HONEST HOUR WITH JESUS. 



TTTHILE conversing with an inquirer 
* ^ once in Mr. Moody's meeting our 
chief aim was to get the young man to 
unloose himself from every body and every 
thing else, and to get close up to Jesus. 
The powerful sermon he had just heard in 
the Rink could not save him; the friend who 
knelt by his side in prayer could not. Our 
aim was to shake him off from every floating 
object in his reach, and bid him lay strong 
hold on the omnipotent Saviour. The sal- 
vation of every soul is to be settled directly 
between that soul and the atoning Jesus. 
Any person or thought which comes be- 
tween the soul and its Saviour is a fatal 
impertinence. 



ONE HONEST HOUR WITH JESUS. 45 

This is the counsel we offer to every anx- 
ious seeker for pardon and peace who may 
read these lines. Do you really long for 
pardon? Then come close up to Jesus as 
she did, in olden time, who flung herself 
on his feet, and moistened them with her 
tears. Confess to him your own sins with- 
out concealment or apology. Do not spare 
your own favorite sins ; call them by name 
and implore him to blot them out, and to 
give you strength to avoid repeating them. 
Tell him no lies. It would be an impious 
falsehood for a man to confess to God the 
sin of gambling while he had a pack of cards 
in his pocket, and secretly intended to use 
them again. It would be a mockery to ask 
forgiveness for an act of dishonesty while the 
ill-gotten money was hidden in the purse, 
and not yet restored to the one who had 
been wronged. What right lias any man to 
ask Jesus to forgive him, when his heart is 
still burning with hatred or festering with 
grudges against a fellow-creature ? Confes- 
sion, to be of any avail, must let go of its 



46 POINTED PAPERS. 

hold on the sin confessed. Then the lips 
can speak without reserve. Then the peti- 
tioner is in an honest attitude and may hope 
to be heard. But while the iniquity is still 
harbored in the heart, God will not listen 
to your confession, be it ever so loud or 
long-continued. Come right to Jesus and 
tell him that you so loathe your sins that 
you have put the amputating knife to them. 
He will hear you then. And then you have 
full right to ask for the benefit of that "blood 
which cleanseth from all sin." Surely you can 
not expect the Lord Jesus to cleanse your 
heart while you are constantly defiling it 
afresh by a repetition of the same wicked 
words, or thoughts or deeds. 

Jesus invites honest sin-surrendering con- 
fession. No mother's arms can be so open 
to the erring boy who comes back to her 
with the sincere sobbing words, " Mother, I 
did it ; forgive me, and if God help me, L 
will never do it again." Sinners are too apt 
to be afraid of Christ. You may feel quite 
willing to open yourself to some old friend; 



ONE HONEST HOUR WITH JESUS. 47 

but to go into your room alone with Jesus 
Christ and there make a clean breast of it 
by telling him your guilt, and asking his 
forgiveness, is more than you dare do. But 
you commit a fearful mistake. 



'Sinning soul, come nearer Jesus; 

Come! but come not fearing thus; 
Come with faith that trusts more freely 

His great tenderness for us ! " 



As long as you let any fear or any doubt, 
or any secret hankering for sin keep you 
away from the Saviour himself, you are 
without hope. You will perish where you 
are. Christ waits for you with open ear 
and open hand. He asks your confidence. 
Every hour spent elsewhere is an hour lost. 
Every hour with your pastor or in an in- 
quiry-meeting that you spend in getting re- 
lief from human aid, is utterly wasted. It 
is the solemn duty of that pastor, or of the 
friend with whom you converse, to shake 
you off from clinging to their skirts or their 
prayers. There is such a tendency to hold 



48 POINTED PAPERS. 

to somebody else than Jesus only, that we 
warn you against it. 

When you have honestly and penitently 
sought out Christ and confessed your sins 
to him, and put yourself wholly in his hands, 
then stay there. Follow him. Keep close to 
him, and him alone. In your store, in your 
shop, in your field, in your home, or where- 
ever you are, be ever saying, " Now, Jesus, 
lead me ! Teach me thy way ! Hold fast to 
my hand! Keep my conscience quick and 
active, and my will in submission to thy 
will! If my old sins come back to tempt 
me, then give me the grace to resist." 

This is Bible - religion — this is doing all 
that you possibly can "do to be saved. 7 ' 
These steps exhaust the divine requirement. 
Paul must have meant just this when he 
commanded the inquirer to "trust on the 
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." 
A vague idea is floating before many minds 
that if certain famous preachers come to 
preach or sing to them, or if certain ser- 
vices are attended in their own town, or 



ONE HONEST HOUR WITH JESUS. 49 

church, they will receive some undefined 
benefit. This is a delusion. Reader! Jesus 
the atoning Lamb of God, the sin-pardoner, 
the life-giver, is within your reach to-day. 
Come close up to him, and lay a heart-hold 
on him. Sooner or later you must do that 
or be forever lost. One honest hour ivith 
Jesus may be the first step towards an eter- 
nity of glory. 



THE CONVERSION AT THE TOLL- 
BOOTH. 



r 1 1 HERE are very few startling religious 
•*■ experiences recorded in the New Tes- 
tament. There is, indeed, one case of awak- 
ening which has much that was dramatic in 
it — the case of the jailer at Philippi. There 
was one most extraordinary conversion, as by 
a lightning flash, on the highway to Damas- 
cus. Paul was the most extraordinary human 
character in the Early Church. His regen- 
eration was accompanied by some wonderful 
phenomena. But, if there had been no other 
awakenings recorded except the one by an 
earthquake, and no other conversions re- 
corded except the one by a "light from 
Heaven " and a supernatural voice, we or- 
dinary people might be perplexed and dis- 



THE CONVERSION AT THE TOLL-BOOTH. 51 

couraged. We might be left to wait — and 
to wait in vain for something "sensational" 
to come upon us. Instead of that, we find 
that the spiritual transformations described in 
the New Testament were commonly produced 
in the most quiet, normal way — by calm ap- 
peals to the reason and the conscience. 

The direct appeals made by our Lord and 
Saviour were eminently of that character. 
When Lot was to be hurried out of Sodom, 
threatened with a shower of fire, it was well 
that the Heaven-sent messenger should lay 
hands on him and urge him to "escape for 
his life ! " But we do not read that Jesus 
Christ was accustomed to walk through the 
streets of Capernaum and Jerusalem shout- 
ing to tt^e people: " Escape for your lives!" 
He fully realized the guilt and the dangers 
of the unconverted around him; yet he knew 
the best way to reach these unconverted sin- 
ners — by calmly addressing their reason, their 
moral sense, and their affections. He con- 
victed the erring woman of Sychar by ap- 
plying the truth to her conscience. He 



52 POINTED PAPERS. 

reached Zaccheus by a personal kindness to 
him — by going to dine with him, even though 
he was an unpopular publican. His usual 
formula was a very short and simple one. 
It consisted of two words: " Follow me", 
This brief formula he used in the cases of 
Andrew, of Philip, of Peter, of the two sons 
of Zebedee, and it is quite probable that the 
same words were addressed to the other apos- 
tles. We are not informed that the spiritual 
change wrought in any of the twelve disci- 
ples was accompanied by any powerful emo- 
tional agitation, either of deep distress or of 
sudden ecstasy. It is only in modern days 
that the idea has been held forth that a true 
change of heart and life must be evidenced 
by pungent distress, followed by a rapturous 
relief. Many a genuine conversion has been 
attended by the anguish of deep conviction 
and the rapture of a sudden joy, but we 
doubt whether a majority of the best Chris- 
tians now living had precisely this experi- 
ence. For a sinner to wait for such an ex- 
perience or to demand it from God before 



THE CONVERSION AT THE TOLL-BOOTH. 53 

he will obey the divine voice is both mad- 
ness and presumption. 

There is one case of conversion narrated 
in the Bible which is peculiarly instructive 
and encouraging to what Abraham Lincoln 
used to call " the plain people." The man 
who was converted was not a genius ; but 
one of ordinary natural abilities. He was 
not a comet • but a very steady and modest 
fixed star. The most remarkable thing about 
him was that he belonged to a very odious 
order of men — the tax collectors for the 
Roman masters of Palestine. So keenly 
were Jewish patriotism and religion wound- 
ed by the foreign domination of the Csesars 
that every penny paid to a publican was paid 
with a grudge and a growl. The Jews had 
a proverb : " Take not a wife out of the fam- 
ily where there is a publican, for they are all 
publicans. 77 

One day Jesus, in the course of his walk 
from Capernaum by the sea-side, came across 
one of these detested publicans, sitting under 
his toll-booth. The toll-booth was a sort of 



54 POINTED PAPERS. 

Oriental custom-house. Not a permanent 
building, but a mere shed or booth by the 
road-side. The one near Capernaum must 
have been at the junction of the roads lead- 
ing to several important towns. The customs 
collector who sat there waiting for tribute was 
a Jew. His name, "Levi," marks his na- 
tionality. His father's name was Alpheus. 
Our Lord must have seen something in that 
man who sat at the toll-booth which made 
him the man for His purpose. The fact 
that his business was unpopular constituted 
no bar in the way of that unworldly Mes- 
siah, who could "evoke a Christian holiness 
out of the midst of heathen corruption." 
Jesus was probably no stranger to Levi. 
The wondrous miracles of Jesus must have 
reached the publican's ear; perhaps some 
of the divine words of Jesus also. Levi 
was waiting for' the call. It came in the 
most simple and intelligible language: "Fol- 
low me." This showed that Christ loved 
him and wanted him. This appeal was 
enough to kill his covetousness and to 



THE CONVERSION AT THE TOLL-BOOTH. 55 

change the current of his life. He "left 
all, rose up, and followed him" — touched 
by the electric finger of a forgiving and re- 
newing grace. From* that time onward he 
is known as "Matthew," which signifies "a 
gift of God." 

What did Matthew leave ? Certainly not 
his property, immediately, for we find him 
giving an hospitable entertainment to Jesus 
at his house. He left his old calling, with 
all its odious profits. He left his old spirit- 
ual errors. He left his sinful, worldly life 
behind. He found instead of these, a new 
calling. His knowledge of the art of writing 
he consecrated afterward to the preparation 
of that first "Gospel" which bears his name. 
He found peace of conscience. He found a 
field of holy and honored toil in the new 
kingdom. He found a Friend. He found 
an everlasting inheritance among the saints 
in light and glory. 

Unconverted reader, don't you think that 
was a wise choice made that day at the toll- 
booth ? Could you make a better one than 



56 POINTED PAPERS. 

he made ? Imagine what would have been 
Matthew's future if he had said "no," in- 
stead of " yes," at the toil -booth. Who 
would have ever heard of him? Some one 
else might have stood where he stands, in 
the golden portals of the New Testament: 
but it would not have been Matthew the 
Apostle. 

Remember, too, that the publican was a 
plain, e very-day man, working on in an even, 
level line of service. He was not an extra- 
ordinary character, nor was he converted 
amid a convulsion of excitement. He did 
not wait for a Pentecost. All the more is 
his case a model for your imitation. You 
are not an extraordinary character, and there 
may be no unwonted revival influence strik- 
ing in upon you. Most of the converts in 
the New Testament came into Christ's king- 
dom without such external pressure. Cer- 
tainly, Matthew was in the ordinary attitude 
of his e very-day life. And right there, under 
the influence of the divine call, he decided 
for Christ. So can you. He acted from mo- 



THE CONVERSION AT THE TOLL-BOOTH. 57 

tives, not transient impulse. His reason was 
convinced ; his conscience was in the step. 
Christ's love awakened love in him. These 
are all vital points in solid, enduring conver- 
sions. And there is nothing in the world but 
your own stubborn, foolish, selfish will that 
keeps you from having the precious gift of 
life — life everlasting — which Matthew that day 
accepted. You are only required to give up 
what is wrong. You are only commanded 
to do what is right. You are to give up 
living for yourself, and begin to live for 
God, which means, also, to live for the good 
of others. You must quit your besetting sins. 
And do it voluntarily. The publican "rose 
up." This implies immediate action. It was 
now or never with him. So must you act 
with prompt obedience. He did the first 
thing Jesus bade him do. Are you willing 
to do as much ? If not, you are deciding 
against Christ, and that means death! 

The chief thing which Matthew did was to 
"follow" Jesus. He did not lead or dictate. 
He had no track of his own, but chose to walk 



58 POINTED PAPERS. 

in Christ's. Precisely so must it be with you, 
if you would attain the Christian's peace, the 
Christian's power, the Christian's hope, and 
the Christian's heaven. Christ goes before 
you. Follow him. He gives you his Word. 
Study and obey it. Do not linger at your 
toll-booth of a selfish, guilty, worldly life. 
Death will find you there by and by, and 
cut you down in your sins. Then comes the 
judgment. Up to that hour at the toll-booth 
Levi's life was chaff; thenceforth it was wheat. 
The chaff was for the burnings ; the wheat 
went into the garner. Your life, out of 
Christ, is chaff; it will go into the flames 
of hell. Obey Jesus, follow him, and your 
remaining life will be golden grain for the 
harvest of heaven. Will you? 



CHRIST, AND HIS LITTLE SHIPS. 



TESUS is often presented to us as the Cap- 
*~* tain of our salvation. The weapons of 
our warfare are furnished from his armory. 
But in one striking scene he appears as our 
Admiral, conducting his fleet, through storm 
and darkness and peril, to the desired haven. 
The scene is described by the evangelist 
Mark, and it illustrates several points of 
spiritual experience most admirably. 

At the close of one of his busiest days of 
labor, our Lord finds himself on the east- 
ern shore of Lake Gennesareth. He says 
to his followers: "Let us cross over unto 
the other side." This is substantially the 
invitation to every unconverted soul. For 
there are two " sides' 1 in life — a wrong side 



60 POINTED PAPERS. 

and a right side : a side on which Satan 
reigns, and a "Lord's side," where his Word 
is a light unto the footsteps. On one side 
lies guilt, and over it hangs the cloud of 
condemnation. No man can be on both 
sides, if he try ever so hard. Woe be unto 
him if his professions place him on the Lord's 
side, while his affections and his conduct are 
on the side of the enemy. 

When Jesus commands a soul to follow 
him, he furnishes not only the test of faith, 
but the touchstone of character. These two 
all - comprehensive words — ' ' follow me " — 
were Christ's most common formula to those 
yet outside of the kingdom. They were at 
once his awakening appeal, his direction to 
the inquiring heart, and his "confession of 
faith " and rule of daily conduct. True re- 
ligion is simply following Christ. The more 
closely our modern churches conform their 
standards of doctrine to this brief, vital core- 
truth, the more orthodox will they become 
and the less will they be rent into fac- 
tions and distracted with schisms. The true 



CHRIST, AND HIS LITTLE SHIPS. 61 

" Evangelical Alliance "will always crystallize 
around Christ's person as the one only leader, 
and Christ's cross as the one only ground of 
salvation. No one can follow Christ and 
Satan at the same, moment. No one can 
follow Christ until he breaks with his old 
habits and cuts loose from his besetting sins. 
Here comes the pinch. The young ruler 
never would have gone away sorrowful if 
Jesus had allowed him to compromise, by 
holding on to this world's treasures and se- 
curing everlasting treasures also. Jesus de- 
manded that he should cut loose from his 
selfishness and go over unto the "other side." 
Christ draws sharp lines and allows no neu- 
tralities. I do not read of any place in 
Heaven for neutrals. 

On that evening by the lake-shore the com- 
pany had to decide at once whether they 
would remain in Gennesareth or embark with 
Jesus for the other side. Observe that he 
does not send his disciples off alone. He 
foresaw danger ahead and goes with them. 
Never yet has our loving Lord commanded 



62 POINTED PAPERS. 

a sinner to forsake his life of sin, or a believer 
to embark in any enterprise of benevolence, 
or venture on a mission for the right, how- 
ever perilous or storm-provoking, without the 
assurance "I am with you always." Where 
we can not take Christ with us we should 
never venture. This is the unfailing test as 
to the rightfulness of our business pursuits 
and our social amusements. 

Mark tells us that Jesus was not left to 
cross the lake alone. There "were with him 
also other little ships." Mere fishing-boats, 
of course ; but each one had its passengers. 
Christ is the Admiral in command ; and the 
vessels must keep within hail of him, as well 
as of each other. Their safety does not de- 
pend on the size of the boat ; but on the 
seamanship and the divine protection of the 
Commander. It was not a fleet of colossal 
war-galleys that the Saviour convoyed that 
night ; but a flotilla of fishing-smacks. I may 
be voyaging to eternity in a little boat; but, 
however humble be the craft, it contains my 
immortal hopes. Only here and there is a 



CHRIST, AND HIS LITTLE SHIPS. 63 

great galley to be seen, with its banks of 
oars. But the tiniest skiff that bears a child's 
soul, or is freighted with the humblest disci- 
ple's little all, is just as surely under our 
Commander's eye as if it were a royal ar- 
gosy. We are safe even in a little boat when 
Jesus keeps watch over it. Many a sev- 
enty-four, manned with self- righteousness, 
has foundered in the deep; but Heaven's 
harbor will be covered with little boats that 
our Commander has piloted home through 
storm and darkness. 

That was a night of tempest and panic 
through which Christ brought his flotilla to 
the other side. He never promises smooth 
water to his followers. Nor is his Church a 
vast assemblage of tow-boats, pulled along by 
the sheer power of the Divine Will. Each 
Christian has his own oar of personal respon- 
sibility to pull, and his own rudder of con- 
science to steer with, and must "work his 
passage " as a free agent. A hard pull had 
the oarsmen in the little boats on that memo- 
rable night-voyage over Galilee. The fierce 



64 POINTED PAPERS. 

waves combed over even into the vessel that 
carried the Captain of our salvation. To test 
the faith of his crew to the utmost, he lies 
down to slumber on the stern-beam of the 
boat. Poor, frightened creatures ! How like 
you and me they acted when they gave up all 
for lost, and screamed in the Master's ear : 
"Lord! Lord! carest thou not that we per- 
ish ? " Every little boat in the fleet may 
have had some trembling hands on board 
during that midnight hurricane. Here snaps 
an oar, and there a tremendous sea lurches 
over the gunwale. Peter and John must 
have recalled that stormy night often when 
they were passing through their tempestuous 
experiences in after years. Brother ! you and 
I will recall dark hours of trial over surg- 
ing seas and through head-winds of opposition 
after we get home to glory. More than one 
will look back, and see how close he ran to 
the rocks, and what hair-breadth escapes he 
made when he "struck a light' 7 with the tin- 
der and steel of prayer. I expect to meet 
some mariners up yonder who were half- 



CHRIST, AND HIS LITTLE SHIPS. 65 

drowned pretty often, and had their sea-bis- 
cuit well soaked in the brine. 

Nay, more. We doubt whether the fleet 
on Galilee would have weathered through 
that tempest if Jesus had not been in the 
midst of them. Their extremity was his op- 
portunity. The Owner of the winds had the 
power to subdue them. Never does Satan 
raise a tempest which Jesus can not quell. 
How sublimely goes that voice of might 
out through the howlings of the hurricane! 
"Peace! be still!' 7 In an instant the howl 
hushes to a whisper and the maddened bil- 
lows die down into a calm. Oh ! my soul ! 
why art thou so often disquieted within 
thee ? How is it that thou hast so little 
faith? Wilt thou never learn that Jesus has 
even the least of his little boats always under 
his watchful eye, and all the winds and the 
waves obey him? 

The other side is reached at last. And not 
a single vessel that sets out with Jesus and 
keeps near to Jesus perishes in the storm. 
The morning light shines sweetly on dripping 



* 



66 POINTED PAPERS. 

sail and moored mariner in the celestial har- 
bor. So he bringeth us to our desired ha- 
ven. Beautiful were the words of that dying 
Christian who overheard some one say. in low 
tones, by her bedside: "She can not live 
long. She is sinking fast." 

"No, no,' 7 exclaimed the departing soul, 
"I am not sinking! I am going into the har- 
bor, and Jesus is with me ! " To the voya- 
gers even on the least of all his " little ships " 
will our Divine Commander say: "Where I 
am, there shall ye be also. 77 



'FOLLOW THOU ME!" 



"TTTHAT a motto for every-day use our 
^ * dear Master gave us all when he 
said to Peter: "What is that to thee? Fol- 
low thou me ! " It fits so many cases. Here, 
for example, is an obscure, hard-working pas- 
tor, who reads in his religious journal of the 
wonderful successes of a Moody or a Spur- 
geon: how one of them preaches every Sun- 
day to six or seven thousand auditors, and 
how the other is blessed to the conversion 
of several thousands of souls in a single year. 
He throws down the paper in a sort of envi- 
ous despair, and feels that he is an absolute 
nobody in the vine} 7 ard of Christ. "What is 
all that to thee?" whispers the Shepherd's 
voice. "Follow thou me!" Ashamed of 



68 POINTED PAPERS. 

himself, the humble country pastor turns to 
his Bible and his unfinished sermon again, 
determined that he will do his little best, 
even though his name never figures in the 
bulletins. If the Master smiles on him, it 
is enough. To save even one soul is re- 
ward for a lifetime's toil. 

How often a self-distrustful Christian tries 
to excuse himself from active labors in the 
church or Sunday-school with the stereotyped 
apology: "If I were gifted like A or B, I 
would be as active as they are in teaching 
or in public prayer or speech." Friend, the 
way to attain to larger gifts is to employ 
the gifts you have. Give Jesus thy one tal- 
ent, and then he may trust thee with two. 
If you can not speak glibly in a prayer-meet- 
ing, then stammer out your heart's thanks 
in the best fashion you can. It may be that 
your few broken words may accomplish more 
than another man's fluent harangue. I had 
an old disciple once in my church I would 
rather hear stutter out ten sentences than 
hear some others expatiate for an hour. He 



" FOLLOW THOU ME ! " 69 

was a man who lived in "close grups" with 
Jesus. If you have no brilliant or thrilling 
experience to relate in the social meeting, 
then tell the honest story of how you do 
feel and what you are striving after. It is 
always a satisfaction to hear a man speak 
the truth. Christ judges his servants accord- 
ing to what they have ; never according to 
what they have not. 

There is a gentle rebuke, too, of our mur- 
muring discontent in those words of our Lord. 
Perhaps some poverty-stricken brother who 
reads this paragraph has an uprising of the 
old Adam in him every time he goes to 
church. He sees Judge A drive up in his 
fine carriage, or Elder B come in with his 
richly-dressed wife and daughters, and mut- 
ters to himself: " How is it that other people 
get up in 'the world so, while I can hardly 
keep a coarse coat on my back?" What is 
all that to thee, brother ? Follow thou Him 
who had not where to lay his weary head. 
If thou art not rich, thou hast not the temp- 
tations of wealth and never will be called to 



70 POINTED PAPERS. 

give account of a large stewardship. It is 
hard to be poor; it is hard to fall behind in 
life's race and see others pull up triumphantly 
to the goal; it is hard to lose our only wee 
lamb, while our neighbor has his table crowd- 
ed with a group of rosy-cheeked children; it 
is hard to drink the bitter cup of disappoint- 
ment. But methinks the Elder Brother draws 
up very close to such, and puts the arm of 
his love about them, and says very sweetly: 
"What is all this to thee, my child? Thou 
art mine. If mine, then an heir of Heaven's 
glory. Where I am thou shalt be. Let not 
thy heart be troubled. Whom I love I chas- 
ten. What is this poverty, or failure, or 
bereavement to thee ? Follow thou me, and 
thou shalt have treasures in Heaven. If thy 
feet are sore, follow me, and the green pas- 
tures will be all the softer by and by. If thy 
cross is heavy, let me share it with thee." 

"Patience, my child. Thy Saviour's feet were worn, 
Thy Saviour's heart and hands were weary here, 
His garments stained and travel-worn and old, 
His vision blinded with the pitying tear." 



" FOLLOW THOU ME ! " 71 

Shall the disciple be above his Master or 
the servant expect to be above his Lord? 

This passage has its application also to all 
those unfavorable surroundings in which we 
are often placed. It is not an easy thing to 
be an out-and-out Christian in certain families 
or in certain social circles. It was not an 
easy thing for Daniel to be a God-fearing 
Puritan in voluptuous Babylon, or for Paul 
to stand up for Jesus at the Court of Fe- 
lix. Perhaps some of you say: "My 'set' 
are worldly and fashionable. They go to 
theatres oftener than to prayer -meetings. 
My relatives are irreligious. The current is 
against me." Yery well. What is that to 
thee ? Follow thou Christ. If your associ- 
ates are possessed with the delusion that hap- 
piness is only to be found in sensual pleas- 
ures, then prove to them how cheerful you 
can be while denying ungodly lusts. If they 
aniong whom your lot is cast are frivolous, 
do you be sober. If they are extravagant, 
do you be frugal, "as becometli the saints.' 7 
If they live for self-indulgence, do you set the 



72 POINTED PAPERS. 

example of living for Christ and for others' 
welfare. If they choose death, do you choose 
life, and then prove to them the wisdom of 
your choice. "Be ye holy as I am holy" 
is a command you can not shirk or defy 
but at a terrible cost. Oh ! it is a shame 
to us who profess Christ that we so often 
ask : " What will this one say ? or how do 
others do?" Follow Me! This is the true 
"higher life," this perpetual endeavor to find 
Christ's footsteps and to walk therein. 

When the grand old missionary, Judson, 
was one day laid aside from work, his wife 
thought to divert him by reading to him 
some newspaper sketches of himself. One 
compared him to Paul, another to John, etc. 
The modest old hero was annoyed, and ex- 
claimed : "I do not want to be like Paul, 
or Apollo, or any other man. I want to 
be like Christ. We have only One who was 
tried in all points as we are and yet was 
without sin. I want to drink in his spirit, 
to place my feet in his footprints and to 
measure their smallness and shortcomings 



11 FOLLOW THOU ME ! " 73 

by Christ's footsteps only. Oh ! if I could 
only be more like Jesus ! " 

If our churches are to be quickened and 
advanced, then the marching orders to which 
we must keep step is: "Follow me!" The 
only safe counsel for the inquiry-room is to 
point every awakened sinner to the atoning 
Jesus. The two words which Jesus probably 
uttered oftener than any other were: "Fol- 
low me!" They are the essence of all true 
creeds. They are the test and touchstone of 
true Christianity. 



JESUS THE LIGHT-GIVER. 



A PLAIN", coarsely-clad man, from the 
-*— *- north country of Galilee, is seated in 
the treasury-court of the Temple at Jerusa- 
lem. A portion of the crowd who have come 
up to the Feast of Tabernacles are gathered 
around him. Among them leer out several 
malicious Pharisaic faces and contemptuous 
scowls of the Rabbis. Beside the company 
stand two colossal candelabra, fifty cubits 
high and overlaid with flashing gold. These, 
when lighted, throw a brilliant illumination 
over the whole Temple area. 

Pointing, probably, to these gigantic lamps, 
the plain peasant from Nazareth says, with 
modest dignity: "I am the light of the 
world." A look of pity or contempt steals 



JESUS THE LIGHT-GIVER. 75 

over the countenances of the Jewish audi- 
tors as they listen to such an astounding as- 
sertion. Yet he, the derided Nazarene, who 
had led up a band of fishermen to the capi- 
tal, knew that he was to be the illuminator 
of the whole globe and bathe all its continents 
in spiritual glory. Other teachers were but 
torches, soon to burn out. He was the Di- 
vine Sun that should yet "light every man 
that cometh into the world." The ferocious 
bigots at Jerusalem fancied that they had 
put out the light when they slew him on 
the cross; but in millions of hearts and homes 
his warm radiance is felt to-day. No word 
describes our beloved Lord more perfectly 
than this one — the light-giver to humanity. 
I. It is the office of light to reveal; -and 
Jesus reveals God to us. The conception 
of an infinite, omnipresent spirit is too vast 
for us to grasp. But a child can look at God 
when personated and condensed, as it were, 
in the form of Jesus Christ. The words of 
Christ alone can explain God to us, to the 
humblest of us. The sacrificial death of 



76 POINTED PAPERS. 

Christ explains God's justice, and his ineffa- 
ble love wedded unto that justice. Without 
the flood of discovery which Jesus pours upon 
the divine attributes we never could have 
u found out God." He has revealed to us 
man's guilt as it could not otherwise be 
known. In the broad glare of Calvary's 
cross, sin becomes exceeding sinful and de- 
serving of perdition. Jesus has revealed the 
pathway to Heaven, and poured upon that 
straight and narrow road the noontide of 
guidance and bright encouragement. Take 
out of this sin-cursed world to-day the light 
which has beamed into it from that plain, 
persecuted man of Nazareth, and all its 
multitudinous peoples would be shrouded 
in a spiritual midnight. 

II. Coming down from this broad gener- 
alization to a personal view, we discover that 
Jesus is the light of life to me and to every 
other immortal soul that consents to accept 
and follow him. When I am perplexed about 
any question of duty, I have but to inquire 
what has Jesus said? What would he have 



JESUS THE LIGHT-GIVER. 77 

me do? Whither does his own example 
point? Here is every Christian's infallible 
guide. Here is an unerring rule of duty. 
When any professing Christian is afraid or 
ashamed to bring his conduct into the search- 
ing light of Christ's direct teachings, that 
Christian may feel perfectly sure that he is 
in the wrong. It is not necessary that a 
man should shirk the light in order to con- 
vict himself. If when he brings his decisions 
and his doings close up to the revealing light 
of Christ's example "his deeds are reproved,' 7 
then the sooner he condemns himself the 
better. If he does not find the light of 
Christ's approval over the doorway of any 
resort for pleasure, let him turn back straight- 
way. If, when he subjects his ledgers and 
day-books to Christ's rules of right, he dis- 
covers that they will not stand the test, let 
him rest assured that his business is dishon- 
estly conducted. He does not need any other 
auditor of his accounts than his Holy Master. 
Not a single one of the disgraceful defalca- 
tions that have been traced back to dis- 



78 POINTED PAPERS. 

honored church - members could ever have 
occurred if these church-members had first 
subjected their transactions to the ordeal of 
Christ's injunctions. Not a single Christian 
ever stumbles or falls until he has put out 
the light which Christ has given him. For 
our Lord has distinctly assured us that whoso 
" folio weth me shall never walk in darkness. 11 
Oh ! what a friend we have in Jesus. How 
many a pang of remorse, how many a blush 
of shame, how many a bitter cup of contri- 
tion we should spare ourselves, if we would 
simply lay our every thought and plan and 
purpose open to our loving Master! 
i 

" Oh ! what peace we often forfeit, 
Oh ! what needless pain we bear, 
All because we do not carry 
Every thing to him in prayer." 

III. It is also the office of light to quicken. 
The ivy that is placed in the depths of a dark 
cellar turns pale and dies. But let a ray of 
sunlight stream in upon it, and the ivy will 
at once feel a new life shoot through its 



JESUS THE LIGHT-GIVER. 79 

fibre and will clamber toward the open win- 
dow. Sunlight is as essential to vegetation 
as warmth or water. And the manifest rea- 
son why so many Christians are stunted is 
that they attempt to live in the dark cellar 
of unbelief. They grope away from his 
bright, warm countenance into the damp 
darkness of their own gloomy thoughts and 
fears, and into their own self-reliances, in- 
stead of dwelling under Christ's "open face." 
He is the light of life. His spirit imparts 
life, his fellowship kindles joy, his promises 
bestow comfort, his approving smile could 
make John Bunyan sing in a prison-cell. 
And even when we have sinned, if we 
would but bring our hearts, with honest 
contrition, into the light of Christ's coun- 
tenance, we might receive the welcome as- 
surance : " Go thy way. Thy sins are for- 
given thee." Many a sermon has been 
preached and many a treatise has been 
written to instruct God's people how to 
grow in grace. But the gist of every sound 
sermon or essay might be condensed into 



80 POINTED PAPERS. 

the single short injunction to live in the 
quickening sunshine of Christ's countenance. 
Cheerful old Paul gives the secret of his 
growth, his strength, and his joy when he 
says: "It is not I, it is Christ that liveth in 
me." He exhorts his brethren, who sometime 
were darkness and now were light in the 
Lord, to walk as children of the light. Not 
one of them could grow while in the dungeon 
of unbelief and estrangement from Christ. 

IY. I need not protract this paper to set 
forth the palpable and precious truth that 
Jesus is the only light-giver for dark hours 
of affliction. A rainbow, with all its poly- 
chromatic splendors, is nothing but sunlight 
playing upon a background of storm. A 
Christian's joy in sorrow is simply the re- 
flection of Christ's smile of love upon the 
cloud. If no sun, then no rainbow. If Je- 
sus be hidden, then hope disappears. If 
Jesus depart, how great is that darkness! 

The most Heaven-like spots I have ever 
visited have been certain rooms in which 
Christ's disciples were awaiting the sum- 



JESUS THE LIGHT-GIVER. 81 

mons of death. So far from being a "house 
of mourning," I have often found such a 
house to be a vestibule of glory. At this 
moment I recall a gifted young woman, 
whose dying -bed seemed to be spread in 
the very land of Beulah. Her whole soul 
overflowed with radiance. Almost the last 
words she uttered were: "My road through 
the valley has been long; but it is bright all 
the way. 11 Jesus shone through the gloom, 
and Death's vain shadows fled before him. 
Heaven's morning broke ere life's sun had 
set. Jesus had been to her the light of life 
in this world. And when her emancipated 
spirit entered the realms of glory, her first 
discovery must have been — as it was re- 
vealed to the seer of Patmos — that "the 
LaMb is the light thereof." 



JESUS THE JOY-BRINGER. 



r I \EN men — perhaps others with them — 
"*" are assembled on a certain night in 
an upper room in Jerusalem. If that room 
were still in existence, it might well be con- 
sidered the most sacred apartment on the 
globe. Its doors are shut that night, for 
enemies are about. The doors open once 
to admit two brethren, who come to them 
with cheering news from Emmaus. Still they 
feel sad and lonesome; some are utterly cast 
down by unbelief. Did the door open again ? 
Or was it through the closed doors by a mir- 
acle that the longed-for guest enters among 
them ? No matter which way he comes. He 
is here ! In actual flesh ancl blood, for he 



JESUS THE JOY-BRINGER. 83 

challenges them to " handle ,? his scarred 
form, that they may be sure he is not a 
mere apparition ! It is too good to be true. 
They break out into such delight that it 
quite upsets their faith, for Luke tells us 
that " they believed not for joy, and won- 
dered." But he sits down among them, and 
eats of their fish and honeycomb in the old 
familiar manner. He pronounces upon them 
his benediction. He breathes upon them 
fresh spiritual power, after their late de- 
moralizing panic and desertion. " Then were 
the disciples glad when they saw their Lord." 
His predictions are verified. They are no 
longer bereaved. Jesus is among them, the 
same Divine Friend, Teacher, Comforter, and 
Redeemer. 

I love to study this scene. Through it, 
as through a window, shines in the inspir- 
ing truth that Jesus is a Joy-Bringer. There 
is no greater mistake than to present Christ 
our elder brother to mankind in too sombre 
an aspect, as the Man of sorrows and mainly 
as the righteous condemner of sin. Rather 



84 POINTED PAPERS. 

should we present him as both loathing sin 
and loving the sinner. Just turn to the 
sixty-first chapter of Isaiah, and read the 
passage which he expounded himself in Naz- 
areth's synagogue, as the inspired description 
of his own character and mission. To preach 
good tidings to the meek and liberty to the 
captive, to bind up the broken-hearted, to 
comfort all that mourn, and to give the oil 
of joy for sorrow — this was his errand from 
the skies. He came into the world not to 
condemn the world, but that the world 
through him might be saved. The cross 
brought agony to Jesus ; but joy to the 
universe. 

In how many ways is our Saviour a brhig- 
er of gladness ! Every sinner as soon as he 
feels the sting of his guilt becomes miserable. 
That sting he can not extract with his own 
hand, and while it remains it rankles. Noth- 
ing cuts and kills like sin. No wretchedness 
is so wretched as that of a soul convicted by 
God's Spirit. There is a story of a rich East- 
ern master whose most skilful artisan began 



JESUS THE JOY-BRINGER. 85 

to fall off in his work. The master spoke to 
his steward about it. The steward replied : 
"It is no wonder that the poor fellow can 
not turn out good work. His hands tremble 
so that he can not manage his tools; his eyes 
are so full of tears often that he can not see 
what he is about. A heavy debt is pressing 
him, so that he even drinks to drown his 
sorrow. While that debt remains you need 
not expect him to produce any more good 
work.' 7 "Then," replied the generous mas- 
ter, "go and tell him that his debt is paid." 
From that hour the artisan was a changed 
man. His tears were dried and he plied his 
tools with a happy heart ; his work was done 
better than ever before. 

A guilty soul can never work for Grod or 
enjoy any lightsomeness until its terrible debt 
to the divine justice is paid and the condem- 
nation of sin is lifted off. The atoning blood 
of Jesus pays the debt of every penitent sin- 
ner that trusts in him. When Christ comes 
into the heart, light and joy enter like the 
rays of the morning. 



86 POINTED PAPERS. 

"The Saviour smiles. Upon my soul 
"New tides of joy tumultuous roll ; 
His voice proclaims my pardon found, 
Seraphic transport wings the sound. 

"Earth has a joy unknown to Heaven — 
The new-born peace of sins forgiven ; 
Tears of such pure and deep delight, 
Ye angels, never dimmed your sight." 

It is not only the new convert to whom 
Jesus is a joy-bringer. He is the best of 
comforters to every believer in his troubles. 
Ah! my brother, there is an " upper room,' 7 
an inner chamber, of which you and I sur- 
render the key only to the dearest friend. 
It is the heart's sanctum, with which the 
stranger intermeddleth not. Sometimes that 
inner room becomes dark and dreary and 
lonesome. The lights burn low and the air 
is heavy. One enters through the closed 
doors. How sweetly sounds his voice of 
love: "Peace be unto you!" He shows us 
the scars of his sacrifice for us. He opens 
to us the casket of his precious promises. 
At such times of communion with Jesus we 



JESUS THE JOY-BRINGER. 87 

do not give him "the honeycomb." He gives 
it unto us, and it drops sweetness on our 
braised spirit. His consolations fill the room 
with their choice perfume. We lie in his 
arms as the beloved disciple did; his right 
hand is under our head and his left hand 
doth embrace us. We can say, with happy 
assurance: " My beloved is mine and I am 
his. Whom have I in Heaven but thee, and 
there is none on earth whom I desire besides 
thee." There is no sweeter, stronger fellow- 
ship with Jesus than to bring our troubles 
to him. He lifts them off, and grants the 
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. 
Then are we glad when we see our Lord. 

The more we have of Christ's presence 
the more serenely peaceful we become. An 
empty heart is always wretched. Riches, 
fame, worldly success never fill the inner 
chamber of an immortal being. After count- 
ing them up, the sad heart asks: " Is this 
all? " But the Christian inventories his treas- 
ures, and exclaims: Christ is mine ! I am an 
heir to the inheritance that never fadeth 



88 POINTED PAPERS. 

away ! Joy is simply love looking at its 
treasures. A Christian's joy is in clasping 
Christ and looking forward to the hour when 
he shall be like him and see him as he is. 

The glory of Heaven will be in seeing 
Jesus. "A little while and ye shall see me, 
because I go unto my Father." "Where I 
am ye shall be also." When we return home 
after a long absence, it is not the house or 
the furniture or fireside that awaken our joy. 
It is meeting the loved ones. If they have 
gone, every forsaken room or empty chair 
is an agony. So in our Father's house it 
will not be the pearl gate or the streets of 
gold that will make us happy. But oh ! how 
transcendently glad will we be when we see 
our Lord! If we ever weep in Heaven, it 
will be tears of joy at meeting Jesus. Per- 
haps in that "upper room" also he may show 
unto us his hands and his side, and we may 
cry out, with happy Thomas: "My Lord, and 
my God ! " 



THE SILVER SPRING, 

AND ITS SPIRITUAL LESSONS. 

AM sitting on this March, day under a 
■*■ warm, golden sunshine by the banks of 
the Silver Spring, in Florida. For several 
hours our little steamer threaded its tortu- 
ous way up the Ocklawahaw, amid dense 
forests of cypress and palmetto. The vener- 
able cypresses, with their flowing gray beards 
of moss, gave a sombre gloom to the scen- 
ery. Suddenly our boat turned off into the 
bright and beautiful Silver Creek, where 
the water is so perfectly transparent that 
we seemed to be floating on air. Eight 
miles of this translucent navigation brought 
us to the fountain-head of the crystal creek 
in this marvellous Silver Spring. It is not 
only the gem of Florida, but one of the 



90 POINTED PAPERS. 

wonders of American scenery. I bend over 
the side of our little boat and look sheer 
down forty feet, and the shell-covered bot- 
tom seems only an arm's-length off! A pen- 
ny lying on the bottom is distinctly visible 
and the handwriting on the envelope of a 
letter is plainly seen! Not one particle of 
gross earth sullies the pellucid purity of this 
deep, cool spring, which is itself the birth- 
place of yonder fast-flowing little river. 

As I look down into the magic mirror 
that reflects the tree-tops, I begin to repeat 
to myself these words: "He showed me a 
pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, 
proceeding out of the throne of God and 
of the Lamb." These words set me upon a 
meditation. If our Master were beside this 
bright fountain to-day, with his disciples, 
what a parable he would draw out of these 
pearly depths! He found his texts every- 
where. Looking at the golden pitcher which 
the priests used in the Temple, he cried 
aloud: "If any man thirst, let him come 
unto me and drink! He that believeth on 



THE SILVER SPRING. 91 

me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his 
belly shall flow rivers of living water." No 
emblem was more often employed by the 
Great Teacher, and in the descriptions of 
Heaven itself we are led beside the living 
waters. 

The first thing that strikes me here to-day 
is the fulness of the fountain. This Silver 
Spring sends forth a body of water that 
amounts to more than an hundred hogs- 
heads in a minute. The issuing creek is 
always full to the brim. Midsummer heats 
never diminish it. Beautiful emblem of that 
fulness of mercy in God that furnishes re- 
demption for all sinners who seek it ; and of 
that fulness of grace in Christ Jesus for the 
myriads of his disciples ! # We run dry when 
we cut off our heart-connection with Jesus. 
This is the secret of the spiritual declen- 
sion of many a church-member. He is out 
of communion with Christ. He no longer 
draws by prayer and by the activities of 
faith from the Great Reservoir. "Because 
I live, ye shall live also." As soon as a 



92 POINTED PAPERS. 

Christian finds himself growing dull and 
dry, as soon as he loses his relish for his 
Bible and his closet, his prayer-meeting, and 
the active duties to which he pledged him- 
self, let him take the alarm. He has " for- 
saken the living fountain, and is hewing out 
for himself a broken cistern, that holds no 
water." He is attempting to live on the 
mire and dregs of a dried-up experience. 
The water is not there. The recovery of 
such a backslider is not to be secured by 
the prayers of the church, or the preaching 
of his pastor, or by the advent of a "re- 
vivalist " ; but by the return of his own soul 
to his own Saviour. He must go back to 
Christ in humble confession, and establish a 
new connection with Jesus, as the one only 
Fountain of all grace and strength. A gen- 
uine and powerful revival in a church is 
simply the outwelling of a Silver Spring 
from the hearts and lives of Christ's broth- 
erhood, and the outflow makes a blessed ir- 
rigation of the surrounding community. If 
Christians kept in constant communion with 



THE SILVER SPRING. 93 

their Fountain-head, there would be no ne- 
cessity for a revival. Oh! my soul, may 
thy every vein be filled with this quicken- 
ing flow, so that my leaf be ever green, and 
my life be like yonder orange-tree, laden 
with golden fruit! 

2. The next truth that bubbles up from 
this crystal spring is that the purity of the 
stream comes from the purity of the foun- 
tain. As we sailed up the Silver Creek, we 
observed that the whole stream was trans- 
parent as glass until it mingled with the 
more turbid waters of the Ocklawahaw. So 
the life of a true child of God is pure 
and holy as long as it flows out of Christ. 
This is the only "higher life." As soon as 
a Christian runs into conformity with the 
world his conduct becomes riled and muddy. 
His whole life is discolored. He has ceased 
to be "peculiar and separate from sinners." 
The sand and slime of a sinful world are 
too much for the crystalline character which 
grace begets, and he becomes polluted. The 
word "sincere" signifies transparent. His 



94 POINTED PAPERS. 

clear honesty of purpose and purity of aim 
and singleness of heart for Christ's glory are 
all muddled with a new unclean contamina- 
tion. He is no longer holy. Nobody "comes 
thither to draw' 7 from him, as I see the peo- 
ple come and fill their buckets from this 
sweet, cool spring. He can not purify and re- 
fresh others, for he is not clean himself. He 
has not the crystal quality of that stream that 
floweth out of God and the Lamb. It is a 
suggestive fact that in proportion as Chris- 
tians ally themselves to sin and the sinful, in 
the same degree do sinners draw away from 
them when they want help and spiritual 
good. "Keep thyself pure!" 

I observe, too, how free this silver fountain 
is. Yonder poor negro freedwoman fills her 
bucket from the cool spring. Our New York 
nabob, who has come to visit the wonderful 
waters, quaffs a delicious tumbler also. The 
same fact I observe in Brother Moody's multi- 
tudinous meetings. Rich and poor, cultured 
and illiterate, are cleansed by the same aton- 
ing stream from Christ. They all drink too 



THE SILVER SPRING. 95 

of him with the same relish. Ho! every one 
that thirsteth ! come ye to the waters! No 
man perishes for want of an atonement. 
None need die of thirst while the well- 
spring gushes out from Calvary. 

I can not see whence this wonderful 
spring issues. Its source is invisible. The 
water steals in quietly and without cessa- 
tion. So, blessed Jesus, may thy unseen 
Spirit feed the depths of my inmost heart 
with perennial grace and love and courage 
and holy joy ; and then shall my life be- 
come more like unto that celestial stream 
that proceedeth out of the throne of our 
enthroned and glorious Head! 

Florida, March 26, 1876. 



AFTER CONVERSION— WHAT NEXT 



r I ^HE religious journals have been filled for 
■*■ several months past with the welcome 
reports of widespread revivals. These have 
been often spoken of as harvest seasons in 
the various churches. But the phrase is an 
erroneous and misleading one. Conversion is 
rather a planting-time with a soul than its 
1 ■ harvest." It is a beginning of better things; 
not a consummation completed. Those pas- 
tors and evangelists commit a fearful mistake 
who feel that the conversion of sinners is the 
one main object of all Gospel effort; whereas 
conversion is only the means, the essential 
first step to the great end of all true Gospel 
effort, which is the service of God by a gen- 
uine godly life. Those young converts make 
a still worse mistake if they sit down happy 
and contented with having "confessed Christ" 



AFTER CONVERSION — WHAT NEXT? 97 

and united with his Church. The clock that 
strikes one is expected to strike two. 

What is conversion ? It is a turning from 
the wrong road into the right one. The jour- 
ney is yet to be performed before Heaven is 
attained. Too many, alas! set out on this 
straight road and fall away before they reach 
the mark of the prize. Conversion is simply 
an enlisting in the army of Jesus. The bat- 
tles and the hard bivouacs are yet before you. 
Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast 
himself as he that putteth it off. We want 
to impress it upon the mind of every young 
convert that the real conflict has only begun, 
and they have done no more than to put on 
their armor and enroll their names. Suppos- 
ing you to be truly regenerated by the Divine 
Spirit, what next? 

We would reply that the sowing- time of 
your spiritual spring has just begun. Don't 
repeat the current prattle about being a 
"harvested soul, gathered into the garner. 77 
The Church is not a granary. You are just 
beginning to sow for yourself; and whatso- 



98 POINTED PAPERS. 

ever you sow you will surely reap. You are 
forming new habits of thinking and acting. 
You are an utterly inexperienced beginner 
in an entirely new line of life. The first 
year of your Christian life will have a mighty 
influence on all your future. Many a wed- 
lock has been spoiled by a bad honeymoon. 
Many a promising convert has been ruined 
by an unhappy start; or, at least, his hopes 
of spiritual power and usefulness have been 
blasted. 

Begin with a determination to learn Christ's 
will and to do it. This is what that famous 
convert near Damascus was aiming at when 
he inquired, so anxiously: "Lord, what wilt 
thou have me to do?" It is very well to 
know what a Bunyan or a Finney or a 
Moody has written or said about the Chris- 
tian life. But go to the Fountain-head. Go 
to Jesus in an humble, docile spirit, and ask 
him in fervent prayer to guide you. Bend 
your will to his will. He is perfectly willing 
to guide the meek and the teachable in the 
right way. I honestly believe that, when a 



AFTER CONVERSION WHAT NEXT? 99 

docile heart sincerely asks to be led and then 
obeys the voice of conscience, that heart sel- 
dom takes a false step — yea, never does. 
Jesus promises to lead you in the way of 
all truth. Trust him. 

Conscience is the vital point. You need 
not trouble yourself much about your feel- 
ings or your frames, as long as conscience 
turns as steadily toward Christ as the needle 
toward the North Pole. It is the office of 
conscience to detect sin and righteousness; 
to decide for one and to reject the other. 
Feelings are very fallacious. Some Chris- 
tians are very devout in their feelings and 
wretchedly deficient in their daily conduct. 
They forget that the best proof of love to 
Christ is to "keep his commandments.' 7 Fer- 
vent Christians in the prayer-meeting, they 
are sorry specimens of Christians outside of 
it. There is a lamentable lack of conscience 
in too much of the flaming piety which burns 
out all its oil in the prayer -room or the 
" praise -meeting.' 7 We do not wonder at 
the sneers which are often levelled by shrewd 



100 POINTED PAPERS. 

men of the world at this sort of "revival 
religion." See to it that you give no occa- 
sion for such sneers. See to it that Jesus 
is not betrayed before his enemies by your 
inconsistency. The best thing you can do 
for your Saviour and your Master is to live 
an honest, truthful, pure, and godly life. 
Others are watching you. Then watch over 
yourself. 

In putting on your armor, don't forget 
that the sword of the Spirit is the Word of 
God. Not content with merely reading your 
Bible, study it. Instead of skimming over 
whole acres of truth, put your spade into the 
most practical passages and dig deep. Study 
the twenty-fifth Psalm, and the twelfth chap- 
ter of Romans, as well as the sublime eighth 
chapter. Study the whole epistle of James. 
It will teach you how a Christian ought to 
behave before the world. As you get on 
further you may strike your hoe and your 
mattock down into the rich ore-beds of the 
Book of John. Saturate your heart with 
God's Word. 



AFTER CONVERSION — WHAT NEXT? 101 

As for your field of Christian work, you 
ought not to have much trouble about that. 
Follow God's leadings and go into the first 
field of labor which he opens to } 7 ou. Do 
not seek easy posts or those which will flatter 
vanity. Brave Mary Lyon used to tell her 
pupils at Mount Holyoke to "go where no 
one else was willing to go." Threescore of 
her graduates became missionaries for Christ 
Jesus. As soon as you begin to think that 
you are too good for your place, then the 
place is too good for you. Do what you 
can do best. A converted inebriate in my 
congregation has found his field in a pray- 
ing-band for the reformation of drunkards. 
While you are working for the Master, do' 
not neglect the inner life of your own soul. 
If you do not keep the fountain well filled 
with love of Jesus, the stream of your ac- 
tivities will run dry as soon as the novelty 
is over. 

Your daily battle will be with the sins 
that most easily beset you. The serpent 
often scotched is not killed. Paul himself 



102 POINTED PAPERS. 

had to give his carnal appetites the "black 
eye " pretty often. You will never get your 
discharge from this war with the old Adam 
until you enter Heaven. The moment you 
fall asleep the Philistines will be upon you. 
Challenge every tempter that approaches you. 
The dangerous Devil is the one that wears 
the white robe and cozzens you with a smooth 
tongue. 

Finally, strive to be a Christian man every- 
where. Carry the savor of your communion 
with Christ wherever you go. Jacob brought 
into his old blind father's presence such an 
odor of the barley-ground and the vineyard 
that he had "the smell of a field which the 
Lord had blessed.' 7 Every place you enter 
ought to be the better for your presence. 
Never disappoint the expectation of your 
Master. He is the best master in the uni- 
verse. Having put on the uniform of his 
glorious service, wear it until you are laid 
in your coffin. Carry his banner up to the 
heavenly gate. When Death calls your name 
on the roll, be ready to answer "Here." 



TEACHING BEGINNERS HOW TO 
WALK. 



r T^HE minor prophets are the least studied 
■*■ probably of any portion of God's Word 
— except the book of Leviticus. Yet they 
are gold mines yielding inexhaustible ores 
of precious truth. There is a nugget of 
rare value to be found in the third verse 
of the eleventh chapter of Hosea. It refers 
to ''Ephraim," who represents the ten tribes 
of Israel. The verse is this — "I taught 
Ephraim also to walk, taking them by their 
arms." 

The idea is derived from the nursery — and 
it describes the manner in which a moth- 
er teaches her little ones to use their feet. 
When the youngster essays his first attempts 



104 POINTED PAPERS. 

to cruise around the room, he catches many 
a tumble, and falls foul of many an obstruc- 
tion lying on the floor. So the nurse or the 
mother takes the wee toddler's hand, or puts 
her strong arms beneath the child's arms. 
Thus the parental strength holds up the 
weakling while it is gaining the benefit of 
practice and coming at the right idea of the 
law of gravitation. 

What a sweet picture of God's conde- 
scending love towards his infant children ! 
He not only has an oversight of every young 
convert, but he extends constant help. It is 
in the way of self-exercise. What are feet 
given for but to walk with? And what are 
faculties and regenerating grace given to con- 
verts for except to be used in Christ's ser- 
vice? If not used pretty soon, the new-born 
soul will remain a pitiable dwarf or helpless 
cripple for life. I have watched a young be- 
ginner when making his first experiment in 
a social meeting. His knees shook a little 
when he rose up to speak, and he stumbled 
somewhat in his language. But every body 



TEACHING BEGINNERS HOW TO WALK. 105 

in the room sympathized with him, and the 
divine love seemed to be holding his hand. 
He had broken the ice; and as a " first 
time " never comes but once, he feels that 
the worst of it is over. Some great orators 
have made a sad botch of their first public 
efforts ; D 'Israeli did in Parliament, and Dr. 
Tyng in the pulpit. I can recall some excel- 
lent and edifying speakers in prayer-meetings 
whose tongues stammered, and their heads 
swam when they first stood up for Jesus. 

To give a public testimony for Christ, is 
but a single step in the pathway of duty. 
The young beginner is entirely on a new 
track — is serving a new Master, is encoun- 
tering new difficulties, and is put into many 
new positions. Before he "runs in the way 
of God's commandments " he has to creep. 
When he tries to use his own feet, he finds 
them very weak; if God should let go of 
him, he would drop. So he prays " Hold 
me by my right hand " and ventures for- 
ward. This is the experience of every sin- 
cere convert who actually desires to do the 



106 POINTED PAPERS. 

will of his Heavenly Father. God never de- 
serts such a child of grace. The meek will 
he guide in his way, and the limbs of faith 
grow strong by exercise. 

God not only teaches a docile convert how 
to walk, but also where to walk. He pats up 
the bars of prohibition before certain danger- 
ous places, and warns us off the ground. If 
we go there, we go at our peril. Occasion- 
ally we, heads of families, hear a loud thump 
in the hall, followed by a scream of distress, 
and we say, "Ah! poor Benny or Jenny has 
tumbled down the stairs." Our Heavenly 
Father hears a great many such falls and 
cries of pain in his earthly household. That 
presumptuous professor who stepped off the 
platform of abstinence and caught a tumble 
down the stairway of drunkenness, gets up 
a sadder and a wiser man. Then is the 
time, after a first fall, to put himself under 
God's protection. When a man yets used to 
falliny he is ruined. A first fall may bruise; 
but after that, every repetition hardens. 

The stairways of temptation are very nu- 



TEACHING BEGINNERS HOW TO WALK. 107 

merous. Fashion carpets some of them gor- 
geously and claims that they are safe. But 
we pastors know how often young converts 
venture on the slippery places only to catch 
wounding falls. The moment that a Chris- 
tian goes where he can not take Christ with 
him, he is in danger. The Master will not 
keep his hand under our arms when we go 
on forbidden ground. Presumptuous Peter 
needed a sharp lesson, and he got it. That 
bitter cry at the foot of the stairs bespoke 
an awful fall. How many such are rising 
daily into Christ's listening ears ! 

But there is no need that any Christian, 
young or old, should stumble. The "ever- 
lasting arms " are almighty arms. We have 
only to lean on them, and we shall never 
take a false step. Right before us are the 
footprints of Jesus to tell us where to tread. 
Christ is not only our Righteousness, but 
our example. If I can but set my frail 
human foot into the spot where my Master 
trod, I know that his hand will hold me. 
There is no more necessity that a Chris- 



108 POINTED PAPERS. 

tian should backslide, than that the polar 
star should get lost in the skies. Only let 
us keep singing "He leadeth me" and we 
shall find by and by, that he has led us to 
glory. 



WHAT ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN FOR? 



1 ^VERY good thing in this world has a 
"*^ J right to exist. It is its own vindica- 
tion. "The world owes me a living, at any «p 
rate,' 7 said a worthless idler once to Dr. John- 
son. The shrewd old philosopher replied: "I 
am not so sure that it does." This world 
does not owe house-room to any body or 
any thing, social, civil, or moral, which is 
of no possible value. At the very outset the 
religion of Jesus Christ was challenged by 
such sharp questions as: "What does this 
new Gospel mean? What reason has it for 
being? What are its fruits?" Jesus fore- 
warned his followers that they must stand 
this searching test of practical results. "By 
their fruits ye shall know them. A tree that 



110 POINTED PAPERS. 

bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down 
and cast into the fire." One of his apostles 
reiterated the same idea when he reminded 
his fellow - Christians that they must "be 
ready always to give an answer to every 
man that asketh you a reason for the hope 
that is in you." The evident meaning of this 
passage is that every Christian must have 
good and sufficient reasons for being a Chris- 
tian. These reasons he must be willing to 
give to every one who either challenges his 
creed or who honestly seeks for enlight- 
enment. The strongest of all vindications 
would be the practical fruits which Chris- 
tianity should produce. 

"What are you a Christian for?-' 1 is a 
question which the unconverted often ad- 
dress to those who profess to be followers 
of the Lord Jesus. They have a right to 
ask it. Every auditor in my congregation 
has a right to put this question to me, as 
I stand in the pulpit. If I urge a man of 
the world to yield himself to the claims and 
control of the Lord Jesus he is entitled to 



WHAT ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN FOR? Ill 

know what Christ can do for him, and also 
what he is expected to do for Christ. In 
reply to his proper interrogatory, I would 
answer that I am a Christian for three rea- 
sons. First, for my own good. In the daily 
conflict with sin, I am sure to be overcome 
if I do not have divine help; and this Christ 
gives us. My evil appetites and ambitious 
and unhallowed desires are certain to rule 
me and to ruin me if divine grace does not 
hold them in check. I am " under con- 
demnation " for past iniquities, and Christ's 
atonement alone can deliver me from the just 
punishment due to me. In Christ I find par- 
don, peace, strength, and a hope of everlast- 
ing life. If there were not another person 
on the globe but myself, I ought to be a 
Christian for my own sake. Life is only pure 
when it is under Grod's control; life is only 
happy when we can enjoy communion with 
God. Death is only safe when it is a de- 
parture, "to be with Christ, which is far 
better." 

A second answer to the question is: I am 



112 POINTED PAPERS. 

a Christian for the good of others. None of 
us can live entirely to ourselves and for our- 
selves, if we try. We touch others at too 
many points. If I reject the Gospel, I not 
only rob myself of its benefits, but my ex- 
ample is against my neighbor's acceptance 
of the Gospel. Every impenitent sinner has 
a twofold guilt. He not only rejects Christ, 
but helps to influence others to reject him 
also. Taking a stand for Christ may lead 
others to come out on the Lord's side. 

Christ Jesus taught no more beautiful and 
beneficent principle than that ' ' we are not 
our own. No man liveth to himself or 
dieth to himself. We are debtors. Every 
man is to look not on his own things, but 
also on the things of others. We are to 
bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil 
the law of love." Our Master set us an 
example of ineffable beauty in this regard. 
He " pleased not himself." He came not 
to be ministered unto, but to minister to 
others. As the sun expends itself in giving 
light and warmth, so Jesus made his earthly 



WHAT ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN FOR? 113 

existence one constant expenditure of bless- 
ings. That journey to the coasts of Canaan 
was probably just for the relief of one afflict- 
ed woman and her daughter. Never does 
my Saviour appear more lovable to me than 
when he girds the towel about his loins and 
stoops to wash his disciples' feet. "So ought 
ye," he sweetly says, "to wash one another's 
feet." This is the meaning of the phrase 
"Ye are the salt of the earth"; for the 
prime use of salt is not to keep itself, but 
to preserve other objects from putrefaction. 
Is it not about time for every Christian 
professor to feel that, if he is not a stand- 
ing rebuke to rascality and falsehood, and 
if he has no antiseptic qualities, then he is 
a fraud himself? Is it not time, too, that 
the idea of absorbing Gospel every Sabbath 
and giving out none during the week should 
be regarded as a disgrace to his Christian pro- 
fession? This question can not be pushed 
home too close to every member of Christ's 
Church: "What are you here for ? Who is 
the better for your influence, your gifts, your 



114 POINTED PAPERS. 

acts, and your example?" Our self-denying 
Redeemer gave the chief reason for his com- 
ing to earth to make men and women Chris- 
tians when he said: "I have chosen you and 
ordained you that ye should go and bring 
forth fruit." That fruit is godly and benefi- 
cent living. No other religion in the uni- 
verse ever had so sublime a purpose. If all 
who profess and call themselves Christians 
would simply live out their holy professions, 
the conversion of the world would soon be 
achieved. If even a single state or a sin- 
gle county were thoroughly Christianized in 
every house, every school, every place of 
business, and if Jesus shone out in the do- 
mestic, social, and civil life of that whole 
community, then the whole world would be 
attracted to look at so beautiful a spectacle. 
Then the whole world would see what men 
and women could be made Christians for. 
Infidelity would hang its foolish head be- 
fore such a triumphant argument for the 
religion of Calvary and the Gospel. But 
until Christ's representatives live out more 



WHAT ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN FOR? 115 

thoroughly the teachings and spirit of their 
Lord there will be an abundance of that 
secret skepticism which steels the human 
heart against God's glorious Gospel. It is 
for this very reason that so much of the 
headway gained by Sabbath eloquence is 
lost during the other six days of counter- 
acting influence. One day of good preach- 
ing is no match for six days of inconsistent 
practice. God will never honor his Church 
with complete success until it completely 
honors him. 

This brings me to the third answer to our 
question. The highest reason for being a 
Christian is for God's glory. "Herein is my 
Father glorified " was Christ's supreme argu- 
ment for a Christian life. The Westminster 
Assembly only paraphrased this truth when 
they defined man's chief end "to glorify God 
and to enjoy him forever." The supreme 
teaching of the parable of the Prodigal Son 
is to set forth God's delight in saving lost 
sinners. "Even so is there joy in the pres- 
ence of the angels of God over every sinner 



116 POINTED PAPERS. 

that repented!." The rescuing shepherd is 
far happier even than the rescued sheep. It 
was for the joy set before him that my Sa- 
viour endured the cross and despised the 
shame. My salvation will be a jewel in his 
diadem. My life, if I live according to his 
beautiful teachings, will be a trophy of his 
cross. If Isaac Newton was so supremely 
happy at the completion of his great problem 
that he could not eat or sleep, what must be 
the rapture of Him who shall yet "see of the 
travail of his soul " and be divinely satisfied ? 
brethren, we shall understand what we 
w r ere redeemed and sanctified for when we 
behold the glorified Lamb of God enthroned 
amid the praises of his ransomed hosts. 



WHOLLY FOR CHRIST. 



"TTfE never like to find fault with our 
* * " authorized version " of the Script- 
ures, unless we are compelled to do so. But 
the common rendering of the twelfth verse 
of the third chapter of Philippians gives a 
very weak idea of a very strong passage. 
Paul really means to say, "I press on' 7 (for 
the prize) if I may seize that for which I 
was seized on by- Christ Jesus." Dean Al- 
ford's rendering is: " If I may lay hold on 
that for which I was laid hold of by Christ 
Jesus." Paul realized that the crucified Sa- 
viour had grasped him on the road to Da- 
mascus and appropriated him to his glorious 
service. When we contemplate the prodi- 
gious vigor and the splendid dialectic skill 
of the man, we do not wonder that Christ 



118 POINTED PAPERS. 

coveted him for the apostolate and "seized 
on " him by his converting grace. 

Bearing this in mind, we understand bet- 
ter why Paul's motto should have been "this 
one thing I do." He lived for one great pur- 
pose, and to that he bent all his powers and 
consecrated all his faculties. In the best 
sense of the term, Paul was a man of one 
idea. The "hold" of his intellect (if we may 
use a nautical simile) was abundantly stowed 
with resources of learning, argument, and 
rich mental gifts ; but a single holy purpose 
trod the quarter-deck and floated its ensign 
from the peak. "Go a little deeper/ 7 said a 
wounded French soldier at Austerlitz, to the 
surgeon who was probing his left side for the 
» bullet — " go a little deeper, and you will find 
the emperor.' 7 So the great apostle might 
say : Go deeper, go to the inmost core of- my 
heart, and you will find the crucified Jesus. 
Other feelings I am possessed of, but this 
one possesses me. Other affections lie near 
the surface; but this master passion lurks and 
lives in the inmost centre of my soul. For 



WHOLLY FOR CHRIST. 119 

me to live is Christ. This one thing I do : 
forgetting those things which are behind and 
reaching forth unto those which are before, 
I press toward the mark for the prize of the 
high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 

All the men and women who have made 
their mark in this world and have achieved 
the best results have kept the eye clear and 
single toward one noble purpose. The mas- 
ter passion with Newton, the prince of Chris- 
tian philosophers, was science. He attributed 
his splendid successes in discovery to the sim- 
ple principle of "always intending my mind " 
upon the one thing in hand. Luther jarred 
all Europe by continually hurling the great re- 
vealed truth of "justification by faith 7? against 
its old ramparts of superstition. Such men 
swing their whole being into one direction. 
The effective Christian is the man who unites 
all his powers into a single pile or package, 
and then binds them round with this strong 
cord — "the love of Christ constraineth me." 
So Paul bound up his, and hurled the mass 
with such momentum that it burst through, 



120 POINTED PAPERS. 

and has come bounding on even into these 
modern centuries. 

A man of moderate talents may achieve 
blessed results for Christ by concentration, 
George Muller is a striking illustration. He 
lives and acts every day as if the loving Je- 
sus had seized on him for a single purpose — 
viz., to house and feed and instruct thousands 
of little orphans. Instead of letting his life 
waste itself into numberless little twigs, he, 
like a wise gardener, has pruned them off, 
and allowed the whole sap of his spiritual 
being to flow into one or two bountiful 
boughs, laden with precious fruit. I can 
name, within the circle of my acquaint- 
ance, several men and women of wonder- 
ful effectiveness for good, who are not gifted 
with remarkable talents. Their single talent 
is to love Jesus and to serve him thoroughly. 
More than half the battle with Moody is that 
he aims all his powers, every moment, at one 
target. Alas ! how many lives of professed 
Christians are utterly wasted by being frit- 
tered away into scores of channels, instead 



WHOLLY FOR CHRIST. 121 

of being condensed into the single purpose 
of doing Christ's will, and thereby being of 
some service in the world. With all such 
the pulse of love to Jesus beats low and 
feebly. They need a reconversion, a thor- 
ough pruning away of the limbs which steal 
the heart's-blood from their Master. The first 
step must be the penitential prayer: "Lord, 
I am a cumberer of the ground. What wilt 
thou have me to do ? " And when they have 
taken the new departure, let them put their 
whole soul into it. This process, well be- 
gun and well carried out in all our churches, 
would soon quadruple the power of our Chris- 
tianity. It would be hard to discover what 
is the "one thing" for which thousands of 
church-members are living, unless it be for 
money-making or some respectable form of 
self-indulgence. 

To "get on" in the world is the upper-* 
most thought; and if b}^ "getting on" no 
more is meant than industrious thrift and 
honest provision for life's necessities, then 
is it not only innocent, but commendable. 



122 POINTED PAPERS. 

God's Word honors industry and frugality. 
Would that both of them were more prac- 
ticed as Christian virtues. But, while a 
Christian is striving to get on, ought he not 
to be still more earnest in his endeavor to 
get up? Ought he not to make life's chief 
aim to "press toward the prize of a high 
calling"; to attain to a higher spiritual stat- 
ure ; to ascend toward the fuller, stronger, 
clearer likeness to his Master? My brother, 
are you getting up every day ? 

President Yan Buren is reported to have 
remarked, when he heard that his son, a 
lawyer, had married a lady of large wealth : 
"Well, he is ruined! She is very rich. 
Now he'll give up his profession, for which 
he has great ability, and become merely a 
rich man — the least useful of human things." 
This is too true. Merely to absorb and en- 
joy a large amount of God's silver and gold, 
without holding any of it in trust for God's 
service and the good of humanity, is one of 
the lowest forms of human existence. For 
a Christian, redeemed by Calvary's blood, 



WHOLLY FOR CHRIST. 123 

to have no higher aim is treason to Christ 
and spiritual suicide. I know of wealthy fol- 
lowers of Jesus Christ who consecrate their 
purses to bountiful charities, and their draw- 
ing-rooms to the uses of a Christian sociality 
and the promotion of Bible philanthropies, 
and their personal influence to winning sin- 
ners to the Saviour. While getting on, they 
get up, and lift others with them. 

This is too wide a topic for a single chap- 
ter. But the gist of it lies in this truth : 
Christ must have the whole heart and give 
the casting vote in every decision, or else 
we can not be full-grown Christians. This 
is the " one thing." All other things are 
chaff in the comparison. Write six ciphers in 
a line, and they amount to nothing. Put the 
number "1" before them, and they amount 
to a million. All human talents and posses- 
sions are but ciphers until you put the name 
of Jesus at the head of them. Then they 
make their owner a millionaire for Heaven. 



THE CHRISTIAN THE WORLD'S 
BIBLE. 



"V7TE are the light of the world ; a city 
-"- that is set on a hill can not be hid. 
This is a timely word from the Master to the 
thousands who are just now making a pub- 
lic profession of him before the world. For 
every one who enters Christ's Church, en- 
ters not only into peculiar relations towards 
him, but towards the unconverted. They will 
watch closely for " fruits," and they have a 
right to expect that every Christian should 
live worthy of the name. The most power- 
ful argument to move and to win a soul to 
Jesus, is the daily observation of true, brave, 
cheerful, holy, Christian lives. Every young 
convert must not only be looking to Jesus, 



THE CHRISTIAN THE WORLD'S BIBLE. 125 

but remember also that the world are look- 
iug at him. 

Twice over, Paul repeats the urgent ad- 
monition to Christ's followers to walk con- 
sistently before "them that are without. 11 In 
one verse he says "walk in wisdom/' which 
does not mean a plausible prudence, but the 
wisdom of obeying God. In the other verse 
he says "walk honestly towards them that 
are without." A Christian is the world's Bi- 
ble. He is the only Bible that the majority 
of unconverted people look at. They scan 
the pages closely, and often chuckle when 
they discover blots and disgraceful records 
there. It is a terrible injury to a man of 
the world to have his mind prejudiced and 
embittered towards the religion of Christ by 
the inconsistent conduct of professed Chris- 
tians. Therefore for the sake of the outside 
world, as well as for the honor of Jesus, all 
church-members are exhorted to "walk hon- 
estly towards them that are without." 

Dean Alford translates the Greek word 
"becomingly." Dr. Samuel Davidson, in his 



126 POINTED PAPERS. 

excellent version, reads it "seemly." Other 
good meanings of the word are, nobly, deco- 
rously, honorably. They each describe the 
conduct which Christians should exhibit tow- 
ards "outsiders." 

Is it becoming for a follower of Jesus 
Christ to cheapen or degrade before the 
world either the holy Word or the day, or 
the ordinances of God? Flippant burlesques 
of the Bible come under this category. All 
disparaging criticism of sound faithful preach- 
ing of the Gospel, uttered before the uncon- 
verted, is destructive of the influence of the 
discourse upon such souls. Church-members 
often unwittingly kill their own pastor's ser- 
mons ! Every thoughtless criticism or silly 
cavil that hinders the effect of the Gospel 
upon a sinner, is itself a sin. 

Is it becoming for God's people to degrade 
the services of God's house to the level of 
the lyceum or the concert-room? Is it seem- 
ly for a follower of Jesus to belittle, either 
by unthinking scoffs, or carping ridicule, the 
services of worship, and the proclamations 



THE CHRISTIAN THE WORLD'S BIBLE. 127 

of heavenly truth on which eternal destinies 
are hanging? We seldom hear a Roman 
Catholic speak triflingly of his religion or 
its ordinances. We wish we could say as 
much for all Protestants. 

An honest walk refers not only to busi- 
ness integrity, but to every relation of the 
Christian to the outside world. Fraud is 
always abominable ; but for a church-mem- 
ber to overreach or swindle an " outsider, " 
is a double sin. It is a sin against Jesus, 
and also against a neighbor's soul. It may 
harden him against the word of life. Chris- 
tians must not complain if they are watched. 
They were intended to be watched. "Ye are 
my witnesses.' 7 " Ye are a city set upon 
an hill." The Christian who so lives as to 
win a soul to the Saviour, shall have a star 
in his crown ; he who so lives as to repel 
a soul from the cross, will have the blood 
of that ruined one upon his skirts. 

The demand of the day is for a higher 
standard and style of Christian life. Every 
follower of Christ must represent his relig- 



128 POINTED PAPERS. 

ion purely, loftily, impressively before that 
multitude of "Bible-readers" whose only Bi- 
ble is the Christian. Whoever else betrays 
a trust, the Christian never should. Who- 
ever else may play the sneak, or the pol- 
troon, or the dissembler, the Christian never 
should. Let the follower of Satan choose a 
tortuous path if he will ; the Christian must 
walk by the air-line. 

It is always a terrible condemnation of a 
church-member that no one should suspect 
him of being one. We have heard of a 
young lady who engaged for many months 
in a round of frivolities — utterly forgetful 
of her covenant with Christ. One Sabbath 
morning, on being asked by a gay compan- 
ion to accompany him to a certain place, she 
declined on the ground that it was the Com- 
munion-Sabbath in her own church. "Are 
you a communicant?" was the cutting reply. 
The arrow went to her heart. She felt that 
she had denied the Lord who died for her. 
That keen rebuke brought her to repentance, 
and a reconversion. 



THE CHRISTIAN THE WORLD'S BIBLE. 129 

Our prayer for every new beginner in the 
Christian life, is that no one may ever have 
occasion to raise the question, Are you a 
follower of Jesus Christ? 



" MASTER!" 



HPHERE is prodigious power in a single 
-*■ word, when that word is large in its 
meanings and fragrant with rich associations. 
The name "Jesus" suggests salvation from 
the curse of sin. The name "Christ" de- 
scribes him who was anointed to be his peo- 
ple's King and Teacher. The word "Imman- 
uel " signifies that God is with us in the 
person of his Son. There is another name 
which we do not so often employ, but which 
is a concentrated bundle of rays illuminating 
the relation of Christ Jesus to his own. It 
is that word which Mary of Magdala uttered 
in that moment of rapturous discovery at the 
sepulchre. Her happy, loving heart simply 



"master!" 131 

exclaimed, "My Master!" and she threw her- 
self at his feet in joyful reverence. He gently 
checks her gesture of devout affection, by say- 
ing to her: "Cling not to me, for I am not 
yet ascended to nry Father." 

That word "Master" is a profound one, 
as an expression of love and loyalty, a deep 
well from which we may draw up plentiful 
suggestions both of duty and delight. Jesus 
himself acknowledged the relation when he 
said: "Ye call me Master; and ye say well, 
for so I am. One is your Master, even 
Christ, and all ye are brethren." He has a 
right to this title. Jesus owns every Chris- 
tian in the universe. They were his from 
before the foundation of the world. "They 
are mine, and thou gavest them unto me " 
was the claim he made on the eve of his 
redeeming sacrifice upon the cross. We are 
not our own. Jesus purchased us with aton- 
ing blood. And the very essence of conver- 
sion consists in a change of masters. Instead 
of that cruel slave-driver, the Devil — whose 
only wages are death — the penitent convert 



132 POINTED PAPERS. 

takes on the easy yoke of obedience to a 
new Master. The thoroughness of conversion 
depends mainly upon the degree to which the 
old bondage to sin is thrown off and plucked 
out, and the new allegiance to Christ is made 
genuine and complete. Thousands commit 
the wretched folly of trying to serve two 
opposing masters. During the week Mam- 
mon gets the lion's share of time, thought, 
and purse. Christ is put off with a stingy 
hour or two on the Sunday and a few 
spasmodic devotions. If their trunk is on 
the Church side of the dividing wall, their 
branches hang over on the world's side, and 
there the fruit falls. Brother Demas and 
Brother Plutus pay their church contribu- 
tions grudgingly, as to an assessor of taxes ; 
but what they give for their carriages, their 
opera tickets, their equipage and wardrobes 
is given "with a will." Into the very core 
of thousands of hearts bores this insatiate 
worm of selfishness, eating out the heart and 
leaving to Christ only the shell of an out- 
ward profession. How will such professors 



"master!" 133 

dare to call Jesus their Master at the day 
of judgment? 

To a genuine Christian, Jesus is the best 
and kindest of masters. Life is a school; 
and, as I sit on my bench learning the les- 
sons which he appoints for me, my loving 
"Magister" comes to me, and kindly ex- 
plains many a "hard saying" and helps me 
with spiritual light. My soul burns within 
me when he talks with me and opens up 
the wondrous discoveries of his love. Some- 
times he employs the rod of discipline; but 
never unless I deserve it. To my aching 
heart he says: "Whom I love I chasten, 
and I correct every child whom I receive 
unto myself. The disciple is not above his 
Master." There is a wonderfully close con- 
nection between these two words disciple and 
discipline. If I am the one, I must' expect 
the other. What am I placed in Christ's 
school for, except to be instructed, and chas- 
tised, and purified, and strengthened, and pre- 
pared to graduate at last into the higher class 
of Heaven? Jesus governs his school by a 



134 POINTED PAPERS. 

law of love. Yet it is law. "If ye love me, 
keep my commandments." He has a right to 
mark out our studies, prescribe our tasks, set 
our copies, chastise our waywardness, and en- 
force his rules. The highest attainment any 
pupil of Christ can reach is perfect obedience. 
Let me emphasize this word obedience. It 
is the foremost word for every home. The 
besetting sin of American households is lax 
authority and filial disobedience. Reverence 
for parents is giving place to pert self-asser- 
tion and premature "having my own way.' 7 
If a parent is not the master of his home, 
he is doomed to be the sorrowful slave of a 
set of selfish young tyrants and tormentors. 
When a merchant wished a boy in his es- 
tablishment, a crowd of applicants appeared. 
He inserted this advertisement, to sift them: 

4 l W< anted. —A boy who always obeys his mother.' 

The next day only two lads applied for the 
place. We might enlarge the wise mer- 
chant's advertisement, and announce as fol- 
lows: 



11 master!" 135 

"Wanted. — The sons and daughters who always obey their 
parents ; the workmen who obey their employer's orders ; the 
magistrates who always obey the laws ; and members for all 
our churches who gladly do their Master's will." 

Obedience is the crowning grace of a fol- 
lower of Christ. Nay, it is the very essence 
of holiness. To learn Christ's will is the chief 
purpose of Bible study and of prayer. To do 
Christ's will is the loftiest attainment to which 
any child of grace can aspire this 'side of 
Heaven. The essential qualities of holy obe- 
dience are : a willingness to let our loving 
Master rule us ; a compliance with his or- 
ders, without murmuring; a readiness to be 
nothing, in order that he may be all in all; 
and as faithful a service of an unseen Lord 
as if he were actually and visibly by our 
side. To deny sinful self is hard; but to 
deny " righteous self" and to claim no merit 
for the best thing we can do is a glorious 
victory. 

I have no especial liking for monkery; but 
some devout thoughts and happy suggestions 
have issued from the cells of monasteries. 



136 POINTED PAPERS. 

There is a legend that a certain wilful monk 
of the St. Franciscan order stubbornly re- 
fused to obey the commands of his superior. 
A severe punishment was prepared for him. 
His associates dug a deep upright grave, and 
placed him in it. After a few shovelfuls of 
earth had been thrown in, the superior, St. 
Francis, said to the monk: "Is your self- 
will dead yet? Do you yield?" The iron 
will made no response. The burying process 
went on, until the earth reached the loins, 
and then the shoulders, and then to the lips. 
A few moments more and those lips would 
have been silenced; but the iron will broke, 
and the submissive friar meekly answered: 
"I am deadP Oh! how often our all-wise 
Master puts us into a deep pit of trial, to 
subdue our pride, or to tame our passions, 
or to break our stubborn self-will. Blessed 
is he who can look up into the countenance 
of Jesus, and honestly say: "Master, my re- 
bellious self is dead, that thou mayest live in 
me, and that I may live for thee and thee 
alone ! 7; 



"master!" 137 

Bonar, the sweetest of living hymn-writers, 
has wrought well this idea of complete sub- 
missiveness to Jesus in these loyal lines: 

" Thy way, not mine, O Lord, 
However dark it be; 
Lead me by thine own hand, 
Choose out the path for me. 

" Smooth let it be, or rough, 
It will be still the best; 
Winding or straight, it matters not — 
It leads me to thy rest. 

" I dare not choose my lot; 
I would not, if I might. 
Choose thou for me, my Lord, 
So shall I walk aright." 



CAUTION TO CHRISTIANS. 



1 ?VERY one — whether within or without 
-^ ' the visible Church — is in danger of 
falling through temptation. No church-wall 
can be built so high as to exclude the Tempt- 
er. And there is no one who has not weak 
points — some one or more combustible spots, 
on which the stray sparks of temptation may 
alight and kindle into a blaze. However far 
any Christian has travelled on his spiritual 
way, he has not got beyond the reach of 
danger. However firm he may stand, he will 
stand all the firmer if he feels constantly the 
need of caution, the need of prayer, and the 
need of clinging close to Christ. 

Young converts, in the ardors of their 
"first love," are in danger; so are all who 



CAUTION TO CHRISTIANS. 139 

are enjoying peculiar spiritual prosperity. It 
is the sunshiny day that brings out the ad- 
ders. Every state of mind that tends to 
breed vain confidence and good opinion of 
ourselves is a state of peril. Peter boasted 
that he stood impregnable when he uttered 
the vaunt, "Though all men forsake thee, 
yet will not Z" Hark! listen for a moment 
after that presumptuous boast, and you will 
hear a fall! "Then Peter began to curse 
and to swear, saying, I know not the man." 
Poor Peter! bruised, bleeding, crestfallen! 
as he goes away weeping into the garden, 
methinks some one might whisper into his 
ear, " Let him that thinketh he standeth 
take heed lest he fall." 

Worldly prosperity is always a state of 
danger. A man is led to feel rich, when 
in heart-graces he may be really becoming 
poorer every hour. He wins friends, and 
feels strong. He has a high standing in so- 
ciety for wealth, popularity, or culture ; and 
yet all the time he may be waning in his 
spiritual life. He is growing less humble, 



140 POINTED PAPERS. 

less devout, less dependent on God. He is 
being gradually undermined, and leans slowly 
over more and more from the perpendicular, 
like a dwelling whose corner-stone has been 
washed away. Let him who thinketh he 
standeth on such a quicksand take heed lest 
he fall. 

A presumptuous spirit is always perilous. 
"Who is afraid?" is the vaunt of the pre- 
sumptuous professor. "Who fears?" says 
every self-confident Peter in the Church — ■ 
"others may fall, but I am in no danger." 
Yet Peter was the very first disciple to de- 
sert his Master. I always feel apprehensions 
for those who, on entering the Church, make 
a very fluent, showy profession, in which the 
little word "I" is painfully prominent. They 
are often the first to backslide. I had rather 
hear more self-distrust and less of compla- 
cency. Poor "Mr. Fearing," in Bunyan's al- 
legory, managed to reach heaven at the last, 
though with a very poor opinion of himself; 
while self-conceited "Mr. Presumption" was 
left on the road fast asleep, with the fetters 



CAUTION TO CHRISTIANS. 141 

of sin upon his heels. When a church-mem- 
ber says "Who fears?" I am ready to answer 
"/am afraid for you, as your pastor." I al- 
wa} 7 s expect to see men stumble when they 
hold their heads too high. I am always anx- 
ious for those who have an unbounded self- 
confidence — who are glib in self-commenda- 
tion, or else most suspiciously severe in de- 
nouncing themselves as the very "chief of 
sinners." Self-conceit has always been the 
intoxication that preceded a fall, ever since 
the days when a backsliding church boasted 
— "now we are rich, now we are increased 
in goods, now we have need of nothing." My 
brother, when you begin to expose yourself 
to irreligious influences, and feel no fear, then 
may your Christian friends begin to tremble 
for you. When the pilot, in steering his ship 
along the coast of Sicily, finds that she will 
not obey the helm, he knows that he is within 
the suck of the whirlpool of Charybdis. It 
is an imder-current of tremendous power on 
a ship's keel. David was in sucli a spiritual 
under-current when he swept into the mael- 



142 POINTED PAPERS. 

strom of adultery with Bathsheba. Con- 
science did not hold the ship. 

What is the safeguard at such times ? you 
ask. We answer, Keep out of the currents. 
Avoid the region of danger. Go not nigh 
it. Where the ice is thin, keep off it, and 
you will never be drowned. Whenever you 
feel a sinful inclination drawing you toward 
any object, or pleasure, or pursuit, then brace 
your foot down, and say to yourself, "No! 
I'll not go one inch ! " A church-member, 
or any man, who finds a glass of wine tasting 
good has no business to touch another drop. 
He is in danger. He does not see it yet ; 
but there is an adder coiled in the bottom 
of that glass for him. No Christian, no min- 
ister of God, no saint, however saintly, has 
any right to tamper with that cup that has 
sent millions to damnation. If God says to 
me, " Look not on the wine when it giv- 
eth its color in the cup," what right have I 
to sip where the serpent lies hidden in the 
ruby depths? If one visit to a theatre or 
a ball-room makes him want to go again, 



CAUTION TO CHRISTIANS. 143 

then let him stay away. He is getting into 
the under-current. He will be wrecked on 
the rocks before he is aware. The safest 
rule for the child of God is to practice a 
total abstinence from the glass, from the 
theatre, from the card-table, from the dan- 
cing-hall, from every thing that leads the 
footsteps into slippery places. A Christian 
should never go where he is not willing to 
pray to his Saviour to keep him ! How 
would it sound for a young church-member 
to say, " Oh, Lord! I am going to take a 
social glass with some of my companions to- 
night ; I pray thee to keep me from loving 
the drink or from setting a bad example ? " 
We close these few familiar cautions with 
reiterating this one safe rule — Never do what 
you can not ash Christ to bless; and never go 
into any place or any pursuit in which you can 
not ash Christ Jesus to go with you. 



THE STOKE THAT STOPS THE 
BLESSING. 



TUST over on the eastern slope of Olivet 
^ a crowd of villagers are gathered at the 
mouth of a tomb. It is a cave cut horizon- 
tally into the rock and a slab or bowlder 
bars up the entrance. Within that sepul- 
chre the corpse of a young man has been 
lying for four days. Without it stands the 
weeping Jesus, surrounded by two weeping 
women and a company of mourners. A sin- 
gle motion of that omnipotent hand, or a sin- 
gle utterance of that wonder-working voice, 
could burst that rocky sepulchre in a mo- 
ment ; but it was never the habit of our 
Lord to perform one superfluous act. What 
man could do for himself Jesus never did 



THE STONE THAT STOPS THE BLESSING. 145 

for him. So he says to the people beside 
him: "Take ye away that stone!" Upon 
the one side of that stone was death. Upon 
the other side stood One who called himself 
"the Resurrection and the Life." The ob- 
struction of that stone laid between the dead 
Lazarus and the life-giving Jesus, and while 
it remained there the miracle was stayed. 
The stone must first be removed before the 
putrefying form of the dead could issue forth 
into life. 

This wonderful scene at Bethany gives a 
vivid illustration of a truth to which Christ's 
followers, as well as the unconverted, should 
give instant heed. And that truth is that 
God's work can be hindered and is hindered 
by human hearts and hands. Jesus was just 
as omnipotent at Nazareth as he was any- 
where else. But he "did not many mighty 
works there because of their unbelief." That 
was the stone that stopped the blessing. In 
our land and in our day there are many 
stones which seem to obstruct the all-loving 

Son of God in his mightiest work — that of 
10 



146 POINTED PAPERS. 

raising to life the souls which are dead in 
trespasses and sins. 

One of these obstructing stones is found 
in the unworthy and un-Christlike lives of 
so many who profess and call themselves 
Christians. In view of the immense number 
of orthodox discourses that are preached, and 
the immense number of fervent prayers that 
are offered, and the vast outlay of time, mo- 
ney, and effort, a very small proportion of the 
immortal souls in this nation are converted. 
Statistics show that the leading Evangelical 
denominations do very little more than hold 
their own. For example, the Presbyterian 
body reports an increase of 22,000 members 
during the last year ; but we all know how 
incomplete is the report of losses by spiritual 
desertion. The actual fact is that the advance 
of the Christian churches upon a world "ly- 
ing in sin " is painfully slow. One sufficient 
reason for this small progress is found in the 
positively unchristian influence of multitudes 
who represent Christianity to the world. Ev- 
ery church-member who makes his religious 



THE STONE THAT STOPS THE BLESSING. 147 

profession a cloak for deceit and dishonesty ; 
every man who devoutly says, "Lord, Lord!' 7 
in a prayer -meeting, and yet " doeth not 
Christ's will " when out of the meeting, is 
a positive antagonist to the spread of Bible 
piety. All that numerous class who figure 
on church-rolls, and at the same time figure 
as sharp dealers, or unscrupulous traders, or 
mercenary politicians, or self-indulgent pan- 
derers to the loose ways of the world — all 
this class are as positively an obstruction to 
Christ's reaching dead sinners as that bowlder 
was an obstruction to his reaching the dead 
Lazarus. The good sermons of the Sabbath 
are neutralized by the bad practice of Christ's 
representatives during the week. A faithful 
pastor sits down to labor with an unconverted 
parishioner; but he finds the man's heart iron- 
clad with prejudice that has been produced 
by the bad influence of one or more incon- 
sistent Christians. A zealous Sunday-school 
teacher tries hard to win a bright lad in 
his or her class to Jesus ; but the boy sees 
every day such an unattractive specimen of 



148 POINTED PAPERS. 

"a Christian" under his own roof at home 
that he is repelled from the very name of 
religion. Now, my brethren, these are but 
examples of a tremendous and widespread 
fact. And, in view of it, our Lord is sound- 
ing into the ears of his Church the solemn 
command: "Take ye away that stone." 

Another stone of hindrance is found in the 
self-indulgent spirit of all that large class who 
never will exert themselves except under the 
bait or the bribe which may be held out to 
their selfishness. Just so far as their self- 
gratification is promoted they are willing to 
serve their crucified Master ; but no one inch 
further. They will not even come regularly 
to God's house unless they are baited by 
attractive preaching, nor even then if the 
weather be uncomfortable. They will not 
engage in any work of reform and philan- 
thropy unless their love of novelty be ap- 
pealed to, or their self-esteem be courted by 
a post of honor in the movement. They only 
give to the Lord what is left over after they 
have footed all the bills of pride, or fashion, 



THE STONE THAT STOPS THE BLESSING. 149 

or luxury. Even their devotions must bring 
enjoyment, or they will soon be done with 
them. I tell you, fellow-Christians, that this 
spirit of self-indulgence must be in God's sight 
a stench and an abomination. The very first 
test of obedience to Christ is cross-bearing 
self-denial. We must roll away this wretched 
stone from our church doors, or Christ will 
never come in and bring his indispensable 
blessing. 

Other stones bar up the path of Jesus 
Christ when he seeks to reach the multitudes 
lying in spiritual death. There is the stone 
of censoriousness and the bowlder of bigotry. 
They must be removed before God's people 
can work with one accord for the salvation 
of sinners. And what a huge, hard rock at 
the very mouth of the cave is unbelief! Je- 
sus could not reach the dead in Nazareth on 
account of this stubborn obstruction. He 
will not do any mighty works in our congre- 
gations this winter if that stone lies athwart 
his path. "Take ye away these stones!" 
But how? The answer is to be found in 



150 POINTED PAPERS. 

deep, honest, self-abasing repentance of our 
hateful sins. This, too, is not to be accom- 
plished by setting apart formally a single day 
of ''humiliation and prayer,'' as if we could 
do up the whole work of repentance in the 
gross. It will require more than a few hours 
of fasting and prayer to cast out such demons 
as selfishness, worldliness, and unbelief. Re- 
pentance, to be of any avail, must work a 
change of heart and of conduct. "0 Lord, 
revive thy work ! " is a prayer that is almost 
stereotyped in all our social and devotional 
meetings. But the first step toward a genu- 
ine revival must be a sincere and heart-hum- 
bling repentance — a repentance which cuts 
to the uttermost roots. The compassionate 
Jesus stands waiting with the boon of eter- 
nal life. If he wept for his dead friend in 
the sepulchre of Bethany, we may almost im- 
agine him as standing with tears in his loving 
eyes before the moral sepulchre in which im- 
penitent souls lie buried. Corruption has 
seized upon them and is doing its work. 
Shall these dead souls be quickened to life? 



THE STONE THAT STOPS THE BLESSING. 151 

They can not be, or, surely, they will not be 
until the stones that barricade their prison- 
house be rolled away. I do not speak now 
of the obstacles which lie in the doorways of 
sinners 7 hearts. Of them I may write in 
another article. My chief concern is now 
with Christ's Church ; and never will the 
voice of him who is " the Life" reach the 
dead in sin until God's people go down upon 
their knees, and with penitential prayer and 
self-denying effort roll away the obstructing 
stone. 

Bethany witnessed a wondrous spectacle of 
joy after that rock was removed and the flash 
of life shot in to that charnel-house of putre- 
faction. It was the most memorable day in 
the annals of the village. No days in the 
history of a church are so luminous with holy 
joy as those in which the dead are brought 
to life and the lost are found. 

Sometimes the condition of a church and 
community is like that of famine-stricken 
Leyden, when it was besieged by Philip's 
Popish army. Within the beleaguered town 



152 POINTED PAPERS. 

death reigned. Its brave defenders were 
starving by thousands. Succor was waiting 
for them in the Dutch fleet, which could not 
reach the city. But the heroic Hollanders 
• sluiced the dykes and let in the sea ; and, as 
the rescuing fleet swept in, they flung the 
loaves of bread to the overjoyed crowds 
which thronged the canals of Leyden. Then, 
pouring into the great Protestant cathedral, 
they made its arches ring with thanksgiving 
unto God, their Deliverer. 

Brethren! let us sluice the dykes of pride 
and selfishness and unbelief. The waters of 
salvation will flow in. Where death reigned 
life shall enter. The courts of God shall re- 
sound with the "new song" of the converted. 
And there shall be great joy among the an- 
gels of Heaven over sinners that are saved. 



WHAT EVERY BACKSLIDER NEEDS. 



r T 1 WO of the most salient points in the Bi- 
-*" ble are — man's weakness and God's 
strength. There are very few characters in 
the Bible-gallery — even the best — who did 
not, at some time or place, fall away into lam- 
entable sin. Modern "Perfectionism" finds 
but small comfort or aid from Scripture bi- 
ographies. It is a striking fact, too, that sev- 
eral of God's people broke at the very point 
in which they seemed to be the strongest. 
For example, Noah was a Puritan, and yet 
he reeled off (once at least) into drunkenness. 
Moses's name is a synonym of meekness, but 
he lost his temper and received God's rebuke. 
Solomon was once the wisest of men j but he 



154 POINTED PAPERS. 

played the fool with women and wine-cups 
and heathen idols. Peter was a brave man, 
but after he had boasted of his bravery, he 
played the coward under the sneers of a silly 
servant girl. These and others who were 
guilty of backslidings — either brief or more 
protracted — were restored by the grace of 
God. What they passed through is precisely 
what every backslider in our churches needs, 
and that is a reconversion. 

Peter's case certainly was of this descrip- 
tion ; for Jesus said unto him (while he was 
already a disciple): "When thou art converted, 
strengthen the brethren." Reconversion is 
not regeneration. God's Word gives no hint 
of a second, or a third new birth of the soul. 
No such process is recognized in the history 
of spiritual experience. Reconversion is nei- 
ther a second awakening of a sinner, nor a 
second regeneration of one who has been a 
true Christian. 

It is simply the return to God, and to the 
path of duty, on the part of a backsliding 
believer. Peter did not cease to be a Chris- 



WHAT EVERY BACKSLIDER NEEDS. 155 

tian during that sad and shameful denial of 
his Master. Nor does any truly regenerated 
man entirely lose his faith or his heart-union 
to Christ during his seasons of disgraceful de- 
clension. He is not in a healthy state or a 
happy state; nor is he " dead in sin." There 
is life there, but life at a low ebb ; and 
nothing but the forbearing patience of God 
prevents him from utter apostacy and final 
perdition. 

Peter's heart-process in reconversion was 
similar to that in his original conversion in 
two vital particulars. He sorrowed for sin 
and repented of it. He came to Jesus in 
genuine faith. Reconversion is a turning un- 
to God ; it differs from a first conversion in 
two respects; viz.: the point set out from is 
a different point, and the distance travelled 
over is vastly less. 

Thousands of church-members are in pain- 
ful need of a reconversion. The Church gets 
very little from them except their names on 
its roll, and their appearance at its commun- 
ion table. They not only do not help ; their 



156 POINTED PAPERS. 

wretched influence makes them a hindrance. 
No "revival" is more needed in our churches 
than the recovery of the backslider. 

The first thing for every backslider to do 
is to come back to Christ. " He restorethj 
my soul." That is, he reinvigorates the life,* 
gives new vitality to the heart's blood, new 
strength to the spiritual sinews, new elastic- 
ity to the footstep in the path of duty. u 0h, 
that I could be again what I once was!" is 
the sad outcry of many a backsliding pro- 
fessor when his conscience begins to tingle, 
and the Holy Spirit begins to strive with him. 
But that is not the point, brother ! Instead 
of vainly trying to get back your former self, 
and to reach your old mark, strike out for 
something better! You can not run your ex- 
periences again in an old mould. Seek from 
the Master a new power, a new inspiration, 
strength for new service, and direction into 
new lines of activity. The less you think 
of your former self, and the less you at- 
tempt to stereotype an old experience, the 
better it will be for you. "Put off that old 



WHAT EVERY BACKSLIDER NEEDS. 157 

man with his deeds, and put on the new man 
in Christ Jesus." 

Having come first to Jesus in heart-con- 
trition and self-abasement, it is a good thing 
to make an honest confession. A member 
of my own church who had wandered off 
into scandalous practices, came into our pray- 
er-meeting one evening, and standing up be- 
fore the pulpit made a square manly acknowl- 
edgment of his backs! idings. He asked his 
brethren to forgive him, and prayed God to 
forgive him. From that time he never allud- 
ed to the painful subject again, but threw 
himself into zealous labors for the Master — 
in which he continued until his dying day. 
Instead of nauseating us by harping on his 
aberrations (after the manner of some re- 
formed inebriates), he made a clean breast 
of it once for all and then began to bring 
forth "fruits meet for repentance." 

There could not be a more profitable or 
God-honoring service in our social meetings 
than for backsliders to make frank confes- 
sion, and implore their wounded Master to 



158 POINTED PAPERS. 

restore them to his favor. General confes- 
sion of sin in public prayer amounts to less 
than nothing very often ; it is only from the 
throat outward. But to stand up and ac- 
knowledge guilt, and breach of covenant, 
and wounding of Christ in the house of his 
friends, demands an aroused conscience and 
genuine penitence. No backslider is in a fair 
way of recovery until he is humbled. He 
must " remember whence he has fallen, and 
repent and do the first works/ 7 or he can nev- 
er have restored to him the joys of Christ's 
salvation. To die in a state of backsliding 
may involve the loss of heaven! 



THE GREAT SEVENFOLD PRAYER. 



r I ^HE sublimest argument of the Apostle 
•*■ Paul is that in defence of the doctrine 
of the Resurrection — in the fifteenth chapter 
of Corinthians. His sublimest expression of 
Christian experience is in the eighth chapter 
to the Romans. But no prayer which his 
pen has ever recorded has seemed to my 
mind, so wonderful in its spiritual richness 
and its comprehensiveness as that one which 
is contained in the first chapter of his Epis- 
tle to the Colossians. It covers only three 
verses, being a model for brevity in prayer. 
It contains seven distinct subjects of petition 
— each one of them being of the very highest 
magnitude. 

1. The first petition for his brethren at 
Colosse is that they may be "filled with the 



160 POINTED PAPERS. 

knowledge of God's will" This is a foun- 
dation-point. No one can obey God's will 
until he knows what it is. The secret pur- 
poses of our Heavenly Father can not cer- 
tainly be intended; for they "belong to God,' 7 
and to him only. The apostle evidently re- 
fers to what God is graciously ready to reveal 
— and that is the truths which we are to be- 
lieve, and the things which we are to do. 
Paul prayed that God would make their rule 
of faith and practice very clear to them. 

2. To discern the divine will clearly, and 
to know just what steps we should take 
every hour of life, requires spiritual insight. 
This does not refer to intellectual acumen, 
but to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. No 
richer blessing is promised to sincere believ- 
ers than that the Spirit of God will illumi- 
nate and guide them. A precious gift is this 
indeed, by which our vision is clarified, our 
knowledge of right and wrong wonderfully 
assisted, and our consciences enlightened from 
above. The Spirit scatters the mists of error 
and doubt, and fills our souls with delightful 



THE GREAT SEVENFOLD PRAYER. 161 

perceptions of God, of his will, of his grace, 
and of our own duties hour by hour. Faith 
has its telescopes by which it penetrates into 
the unseen worlds as distinctly as the tubes 
of the astronomers took observations of the 
transit of Mercury last week. The holier 
our lives, the clearer will be our spiritual 
vision. Sin blurs and bedims the glass. If 
the heart be "single 77 to the glory of God, 
and longs to do his will, our whole being 
shall be "filled with light. 77 

3. Having discovered our pathway of duty, 
what next ? Assuredly that we should walk 
straightforward in it. A " worthy walk 77 signi- 
fies a life in the footsteps of Jesus, a constant 
and conscientious endeavor to keep his com- 
mandments. Was there ever a time when 
this was more vitally important than in these 
days of sad stumblings and disgraceful falls? 
He only who walks uprightly walketh surely. 
To set our feet squarely on the line of Christ 7 s 
commandments and to hold our course stead- 
ily on that straight and narrow track, without 

a tremor of the knees, or a glance to the right 
11 



162 POINTED PAPERS. 

hand or the left, is a glorious achievement. 
One such life in a community is a perpetual 
answer to the scoffer, a perpetual argument 
for the Gospel, a perpetual benediction to 
society. Felix Neff and Oberlin enriched 
their Alpine home an hundred-fold more by 
their beautiful and godly lives than if they 
had produced a whole library of sacred lit- 
erature. What we most need now are hon- 
est, holy lives — sermons in shoes — men and 
women who keep step with Jesus in a daily 
walk of conformity to God's will. 

4. Such a Christian will be no barren cum- 
berer of the ground. As the glory of a 
healthy apple-tree is its fruit, so the glory 
of a genuine Christian is his usefulness. He 
does not merely blossom out with a goodly 
profession ; he bears fruit with all his might 
and main. There is not a sapless twig, or 
a barren bough on the whole tree which is 
planted by the rivers of grace and yield eth 
its fruit every month. In our old home- 
orchard there were many varieties of ap- 
ples. So in God's orchards there are ancient 



THE GREAT SEVENFOLD PRAYER. 163 

olives like Augustine and Calvin — rich, juicy 
"sweetings" like Rutherford and Baxter — 
mellow pippins grown by Leighton, Hamil- 
ton, and Taylor — and bountiful bearers like 
Spurgeon and Newman Hall. Even some 
small trees bear large fruit. Whether it be 
on a foreign mission field, or in an humble 
tract-district, or in a charity-school, or in a 
sick room where love moves about with gen- 
tle tread, — the fruits of the Spirit ripen under 
the smile of God. Herein is the Father glo- 
rified that we strive to bear fruit on every 
branch. We have in our mind's eye a broad- 
limbed brother who is as heavy-laden at three- 
score and ten as when he was first grafted 
with grace. He is a tree that will always 
drop you a sweet apple of kindness for the 
shaking. 

5. The blessings and promises of God's 
Word often group themselves into sevens. 
So is it with this wonderful prayer of Paul. 
He prays for knowledge of God's will, for 
spiritual insight, for consistency of conduct, 
for fruitfulness in every good work. Then 



164 POINTED PAPERS. 

he begs that God would bestow three other 
precious gifts. Those are strength — and pa- 
tience (or "long-mindedness'") and joyfulness. 
I wish I had time and space to dwell on each 
of these imperial gifts. They make up a 
trinity of spiritual blessings which this pov- 
erty-stricken world can neither give nor take 
away. Every humble follower of Jesus can 
possess them all. What paltry estates are 
such as Yanderbilt's or Girard's or Stew- 
art's — for which hungry heirs contend — in 
comparison with the magnificent possessions 
which this sevenfold prayer unfolds! Turn, 
my dear reader, to the chapter which con- 
tains this wonderful prayer ; study it devout- 
ly ; and make it your own. 



CHRIST AS THE SOUL'S TRUSTEE. 



"TTTHEN" Dr. James W. Alexander was 
* * about breathing his last, a friend 
by his bedside repeated the words "I know 
in whom I have believed." The dying man, 
with that scholarly accuracy that always dis- 
tinguished •hirn, said: "No; it is 'I know 
whom I have believed.' " The original Greek 
of this glorious passage is even stronger 
than our translation. A good rendering of 
it would be: "I know whom I have trusted, 
and am persuaded that he is able to keep 
the trust which I have committed to him 
unto that day." 

In these days it is a painfully perplexing 
question: "Whom can I trust?" So many 
investments which were thought to be per- 
fectly safe have turned out to be well nigh 



166 POINTED PAPERS. 

worthless, so many " securities " have proved 
insecure, and so many men regarded as in- 
corruptibly honest have snapped like pipe-' 
clay, under the strain, that confidence in al- 
most every body and every thing is sorely 
shaken. For the ultimate reliance in every 
bank, life insurance company, or other cor- 
poration is on personal integrity. The only 
assets that can make any of them reliable 
are capacity and conscience. Ability and 
honesty are the only two sureties that can 
make assurance sure in every thing that ap- 
pertains to pecuniary or political trusts. 

While hearts are aching with disappoint- 
ments over losses and shattered confidences, 
it gives me great joy to point to one Trustee 
who has never broken his word, never de- 
faulted in his promises, never lost what was 
committed to his keeping. An old captive 
in Nero's prison felt a glow of ecstacy that 
warmed his aged fingers when he wrote to 
his son Timothy: "I know whom I have 
trusted." He knew still more. He knew 
that a day of martyrdom was just at hand, 



CHRIST AS THE SOUL'S TRUSTEE. 167 

and beyond that a day of judgment. For 
both days, severe and searching as they 
would be, the old hero was ready. 

He had put his soul in trust with his Sa- 
viour, and felt no more uneasiness than he 
did about the rising of the morrow's sun. 
The same assurance that Paul had you and I 
may have. Let me give a few good reasons 
for making Jesus Christ the trustee of our 
souls. 

I. Every one of us has an undying soul, of 
infinite value. That soul is by nature guilty, 
and the wages of actual sin is death. It is idle 
for the sinner to talk about being condemned 
in the world to come. God's Book declares 
that he is "condemned already." On the 
back of this declaration comes another one, 
that no sinner can save his own soul. "Nei- 
ther is there salvation in any other " than in 
Christ Jesus. Now, then, since you and I are 
actually condemned for our actual sins, and 
since it is impossible to deliver ourselves from 
the guilt and doom of these sins, the most 
vital question to us in the universe is: " Who 



168 POINTED PAPERS. 

can save us ? " To answer that question is 
the chief purpose of that book which is called 
Gospel or "good tidings." Since I can not 
save myself, whom shall I trust to save me? 

The Son of God answers this question of 
questions by saying: Trust me! Two things 
I need to know, and two only. Is he able ? 
and is he willing? The answer to the first 
one is that he is divine, and that means that 
he is omnipotent. He declares that he is able 
to save to the uttermost all who come unto 
him, and that none who do come shall in no 
wise be cast out. In fact, he sums up the 
whole matter in this one golden sentence: "I 
give unto them eternal life, and they shall 
never perish, neither shall any pluck them 
out of my hands. 7 ' When he speaks of 
"them," he refers to those who trust him 
and follow him. 

So much for what Christ says. Now what 
has he done ? He has actually laid down his 
life as a ransom for you and me. He has 
borne our sins in his own body on the cross. 
He has made an atonement for our sins, so 



CHRIST AS THE SOUL'S TRUSTEE. 169 

that God may be just, and yet may par- 
don our sins for Chrises sake. If the Bible 
teaches any thing, it teaches all this. Christ's 
atonement satisfies the holy God you and I 
have sinned against. He tells us so. That 
is enough. You and I have nothing to do 
but take him at his word. If you and I 
accept literally this declaration of God, and 
if we honestly entrust our souls to the aton- 
ing Saviour, and then are lost forever, it will 
clearly be no fault of ours. We have a right 
to hold the Lord Jesus responsible for our 
everlasting welfare. No responsibility that I 
can exact from the Cunard Steamship Com- 
pany for a safe passage to Europe can com- 
pare with the responsibility laid upon the Son 
of God for the salvation of my soul. Their 
powers are limited ; but his power is unlim- 
ited. He promises to " keep that which I 
entrust to him "; and if I do just what he 
bids me, then the whole question of my sal- 
vation or of my utter perdition rests entirely 
on the atoning Son of God. I can not more 
literally entrust a valuable package to an ex- 



170 POINTED PAPERS. 

press company, and expect them to deliver 
it at its destination, than I entrust my im- 
mortal soul to the keeping of Jesus Christ, 
with the expectation of finding it safe "at 
that great day." 

II. But I expect other things from Jesus, 
if I make him my trustee, besides my final 
salvation from the woes of hell. I expect 
present protection and help. He says that 
he is "able to keep me from falling." The 
pathway of daily life has many slippery 
places. Hundreds are falling, to their own 
wounding and to their shame. But I never 
yet have heard of a good man having fallen 
when he was trying to do Christ's will and 
trusting on Christ's help. Every fall, without 
one exception, came from venturing upon sin- 
ful ground or from venturing upon self-sup- 
port. The moment that Peter trusted Peter, 
he sunk ; the moment that he trusted Christ, 
he found the waters like granite under his 
feet. When a genuine Christian sins, he finds 
forgiveness. That is what is meant by be- 
ing "preserved blameless." When he reaches 



CHRIST AS THE SOUL'S TRUSTEE. 171 

Heaven, he will sin no longer, and then he 
will be "presented faultless: 1 Christ's blood 
washes away the blame here. In Heaven he 
shall walk in white, for into that pure atmos- 
phere shall enter nothing that defileth. 

The limits of this brief article do not allow 
me to recount all the priceless blessings which 
flow from trusting Jesus. If you make him 
your trustee, you can roll burdens over on 
him when they become too heavy for you. 
Not your work ; for that you alone can per- 
form. But the issue of it you can leave to 
him. I am responsible for the discourses 
I preach and the life I live; but not for the 
conversion of a single soul. That is Christ's 
office, not mine. He is the trustee of every 
Christian's labors. If our Brother Moody en- 
ters cultured and fastidious Boston with this 
firm conviction, he can " laugh at the shak- 
ing of the spear" of boastful infidelity. 

What a delightful peace this complete trust 
in Jesus brings ! There are many anxieties 
that make us "lie awake" in this world of 
perils and disasters. " To-morrow morning I 



172 POINTED PAPERS. 

will go and draw that deposit out of the 
bank," says the wakeful merchant, whose 
suspicions have been aroused as to its safety. 
But the true believer can lie down and sleep 
serenely. His deposit for eternity is secure. 
There is no torture more intense than dis- 
trust. The wife who doubts the love of him 
to whom she has plighted her all, the mother 
who fears that the son of her bosom is de- 
ceiving her, feel the pangs of a purgatory 
every hour. Half of the sorrows which the 
professed Christian feels arise from his wan- 
ton, wicked distrust of Christ. When I trust 
a faithless fellow-creature, it is his fault if I 
am deceived. But when I suffer from fool- 
ish uneasiness about what I have committed 
to Jesus, the fault is all my own. 

While writing these lines a young friend 
has come into my room to seek counsel in 
regard to her soul. I addressed to her this 
one decisive question: "Do you honestly de- 
sire and strive to avoid sin, and are you will- 
ing to do what Christ commands you ? " She 
modestly answered : " Yes. 77 " Can you trust 



CHRIST AS THE SOUL'S TRUSTEE. 173 

Jesus as an atoning Saviour with your soul ? " 
To this she firmly responded: "I can." Then 
I said to her: " Your loving Master's voice is 
to you, Daughter, go in peace. Thy faith 
hath made thee whole." She went home 
lightened. She seemed to know whom she 
was trusting, and that he would keep the 
precious, immortal trust until the great day. 



HOW WELL JESUS KNOWS US. 



TN our last chapter we spoke of Jesus Christ 
-*■ as the soul's trustee. As a sequel to 
that article, we wish now to speak of the 
perfect knowledge which Christ possesses of 
our nature and of all our necessities. When 
we are seriously sick, we prefer to send for 
a physician who not only understands his bus- 
iness, but who also understands our constitu- 
tion and temperament and all our vulnerable 
points. Standing on the outside of us, the 
doctor ought to know as much as possible 
of "what is in us," if he would attack the 
disease to advantage. 

Jesus is the only soul-physician who de- 
serves my perfect confidence. He "knows 
what is in man.' 7 Not only in mankind, but 



HOW WELL JESUS KNOWS US. 175 

in my own individual heart. As the watch- 
maker is -familiar with every wheel and pivot 
in the watch he has made, so the Divine Je- 
sus knows his own workmanship. This is the 
infinite advantage which Christianity has over 
every other system. It submits the human 
soul to the Maker as well as to the Re- 
deemer of that soul. 

Christ knows full well that the deadly dis- 
ease that man is suffering from is sin. His 
unerring word hath "concluded all men un- 
der it. 7 ' This is the universal malady that 
taints every heart, shapes every bitter word, 
breeds every sigh, sharpens every sword, 
forges every fetter, darkens every sad home, 
wrecks every splendid intellect that has be- 
come a power to destroy, and has dug every 
grave. Knowing just what the disease is, Je- 
sus also knows that he alone can cure it. 
The idiotic delusion that man is capable of 
self-salvation finds no countenance — no, not 
for an instant — in all his profound and pene- 
trating Gospel of sublime love. In this day 
of " advanced thought," when liberal pulpits 



176 POINTED PAPERS. 

and presses are puffing their quackeries and 
proclaiming that man is capable of self-de- 
velopment into all the religion which God 
demands, what a relief and joy it is that Je- 
sus knows just how to cure the deadly dis- 
ease. For this very purpose he came to 
earth. "Neither is there salvation in any 
other.' 7 With a perfect knowledge of the 
fatal malady and a perfect remedy for it, 
Christ Jesus united himself to our nature, 
became bone of our bone and flesh of our 
flesh, and thus tasted death for us on the 
cross. There were two sides to my disease 
as a sinner. There was a curse upon me, 
and opposition to God within me. Jesus, 
by bearing the curse due to my sin in his 
own crucified body, took away the curse. 
By reconciling me to my offended God and 
my God to me, he took away the opposi- 
tion. The old enmity gave way. The can- 
cer was cut out ; the condemnation gone ; and 
the new condition of pardon and peace, ac- 
ceptance and adoption, comes into its stead. 
God is in Christ, reconciling me to himself. 



HOW WELL JESUS KNOWS US. 177 

No longer an heir of Hell, I become an heir 
of Heaven. No longer a leprous outcast, I 
can come into my Father's household a 
cleansed and accepted child, with the new 
blood in my veins and the new joy in my 
heart. 

He who knew my spiritual disease, and 
how to cure it, knows also who of us is 
cured. We ma}r deceive our fellow-men by 
claiming that we have been restored. An 
applicant for admission into Christ's fold may 
deceive the pastor or whoever may be dele- 
gated to receive persons into church-mem- 
bership. Some who are either carried away 
by temporary excitement or misled by false 
advisers may deceive themselves. But Je- 
sus knoweth them that are his. "I know 
my sheep, and am known of mine." The 
Shepherd can call every one of the flock 
by name. No putting on of "sheep's cloth- 
ing" can mislead the Omniscient Shepherd. 
Among the thousands in Chicago, or Boston, 
or elsewhere who are professing conversion 

just now, it is not possible that Jesus himself 
12 



178 POINTED PAPERS. 

shall be mistaken as to a solitary case. He 
reads every heart to the bottom. Not every 
one who " saith, Lord, Lord," in a prayer- 
meeting, is truly cured; but only those who 
bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. Not 
every one who attends a "meeting for con- 
verts" is sure of a place in Christ's fold; but 
they who truly follow the Shepherd. There 
is a solemn warning in this fact. But there 
is an inspiring comfort, too, in the fact that 
the Saviour knows every one who is saved. 
Not only does he know just who are in 
his flock, but also every thing that is in 
every one of them — their good points and 
their weak points, their besetting sins and 
their newly-developed graces. It is half the 
battle in family government for the par- 
ent to understand thoroughly his child. One 
boy can be led by a cotton thread ; another 
one will break an ox-chain. The parent 
who is too indolent or too blind to study 
his children deserves the whip of scorpions 
which their misgovernment will yet lay on 
his bleeding heart. But Jesus, the divine 



HOW WELL JESUS KNOWS US. 179 

teacher, when he takes an immortal soul 
under his care and into his training school, 
understands his pupils perfectly. He reads 
Mary through and through when she sits at 
his feet, and cheers her up by the assurance 
that the "better portion" is hers. In his 
raw inexperience Peter may brag of his loy- 
alty loudly ; but the Master takes him down 
by the startling announcement "before the 
cock crows, thou shalt deny me three times 
over ! " Jesus detects the splendid capaci- 
ties in Paul for the very foremost apostle- 
ship ; but he also has a place for humble 
Tryphena and Tryphosa, and even a use for 
Dorcas's needle. He knows just what is in 
every one of us, and just how much can be 
got out of us. This makes him not a hard 
master, but the most kind and considerate 
of employers and guardians. He never lays 
on weak shoulders the loads which only 
stronger ones can carry. All the while, too, 
how sweetly come the encouraging words : 
"My grace is sufficient for thee. I call you 
not my servant j I call you my friend. 11 



180 POINTED PAPERS. 

Jesus is perfectly acquainted also with all 
our weaknesses. He knoweth our frame; he 
remembereth that we are but dust. That 
poor tippler whom Brother Gough rescued 
from the dramshop can not understand his 
own frailty better than Jesus does. The bat- 
tle with his old appetite is seen nowhere more 
distinctly than by that Redeemer who was 
once tempted in one way that he might suc- 
cor those who are tempted in any way. The 
secret sorrow which I dare hardly breathe to 
my wife I can freely unbosom to my Saviour. 
Ah! how well he knows every thorn that 
pricks my foot and every wound that trickles 
its silent drops from the bleeding spirit! This 
is a wondrous encouragement to prayer. For 
my Physician never will administer the wrong 
medicine, and I may be sure that he never 
will refuse to hear my knock or my pull at 
"the night-bell" in the hour of distress. 

This fact of Christ's perfect knowledge of 
our soul's needs and requirements throws 
great light on providences otherwise very 
dark. It explains a great many mysteries 



HOW WELL JESUS KNOWS US. 181 

— why one of us is put up and another put 
down ; why one is prospered and another im- 
poverished ; why one seems to run before the 
breeze and another is buffeted with contrary 
winds. It explains why Jesus applies the lan- 
cet to some Christians who are getting too 
plethoric with prosperity and sumptuous fare. 
He is too skilful to open the wrong vein, too 
wise to apply the pruning-knife to the wrong 
vine. Dear loving Master! let him probe to 
the bottom, if the wound require it. He 
knoweth what is in me ; yea, and he know- 
eth what ought to come out of me, if I would 
attain to the health and robustness of a true 
disciple. Better, far better the probe and the 
pruning-knife here than to be cast out at last 
as incurable cumberers of his fold. If it is a 
joy to me to "know whom I have believed,' 7 
it is equally a joy that he "knoweth them 
that are his." 



SEVEN THINGS WE KNOW ABOUT 
JESUS. 



TN a previous chapter we treated of Christ's 
-*- knowledge of us, and our wants and 
weaknesses. Let us now look at the seven 
things which we know about our Lord and 
Redeemer. Nearly all of them may be found 
in that first love-letter which the Apostle 
John addressed to the churches: 

(I.) The first fact we know is that Jesus 
is divine. John says: "We know that the 
Son of God is come." How did he know 
this? We answer that Jesus proved his di- 
vinity by his works and asserted it by his 
words. If he were not the Son of God, then 
he uttered a blasphemous falsehood ; and for 
a being of such marvellous kindness, unselfish- 
ness, personal purity, and holy life to have ut- 



SEVEN THINGS WE KNOW ABOUT JESUS. 183 

tered so stupendous a falsehood were a moral 
impossibility. We, in turn, know that Jesus 
was divine, from the direct testimony of 
the Scriptures. Saying nothing about other 
scriptures, it is directly asserted by John 
himself that "this" (i. e., this person Christ 
Jesus) " is the true God and eternal life." 
How any candid Socinian, who pretends to 
accept the inspiration of the Bible, can gain- 
say this point-blank declaration is more than 
we can fathom. The central truth of John's 
epistle is this: "Jesus is the Son of God." 
Take the doctrine of gravitation out of Sir 
Isaac Newton's natural philosophy, and the 
system falls into rubbish. Take the divinity 
of Jesus Christ out of the New Testament 
and out of the plan of redemption, and they 
become a delusion and a mockery. 

(II.) This same beloved disciple declares 
the chief object of Christ's incarnation when 
he says, "Ye know that he was manifested to 
take away our sins." The most ever-present, 
ever-pressing fact in the moral world is the 
existence of sin. This is the universal malady 



184 POINTED PAPERS. 

and misery. We have just come this morn- 
ing from two households who are heart- 
broken by sin. They would both accept a 
coffin in the dwelling as a lighter sorrow. As 
sin is the greatest of human curses, so de- 
liverance from the guilt and the thraldom 
of sin would be the greatest blessing which 
humanity could experience. Its dominion is 
degradation ; its doom is death. Jesus did 
not come to take all sin out of the world. 
But he did come to take away its bondage 
and its condemning curse from every one 
who will accept of him as a sufficient ran- 
somer, and of his blood as a sufficient atone- 
ment for sin. Jesus "bore our sins in his 
own body on the cross." This doctrine of 
Jesus as the sin-bearer is the core of the 
New Testament. It is the one doctrine of 
sufficient importance to be commemorated by 
a perpetual church-rite. The Lord's Supper 
is the monument of the Atonement. How 
can any person come, understandingly, to that 
table, if he does not know that Jesus died to 
save him from his sins? 



SEVEN THINGS WE KNOW ABOUT JESUS. 185 

(III.) Deliverance from the curse and pun- 
ishment of sin is a marvellous blessing. Yet 
it is a negative blessing: it only saves from 
remorse and retribution. The positive boon 
of a life eternal is a blessing beyond words 
to compass. Joseph delivered from an Egyp- 
tian dungeon is a happy man ; but Joseph 
exalted to the second chariot of the empire, 
with a chain of gold about his neck, is a 
man who dare not be ungrateful, for the 
stones in the streets would condemn him. 
Jesus does more than deliver me from hell's 
prison-house. He secures for me Heaven's 
palace of glory. For the third great fact 
which John declares is that "you who believe 
on the name of the Son of God may know 
that ye have eternal life. 11 This means more 
than bare existence. A poor wretch may 
exist and be miserable. Eternal life in God's 
Word signifies life at its very highest realiza- 
tion of peace, knowledge, purity, and bliss ; 
life in communion with God ; life where no 
sin defileth, and no death intrudes; a life of 
ineffable holiness, whose every emotion is an 



186 POINTED PAPERS. 

ecstasy. This life has its imperfect begin- 
nings at the " new birth" of conversion. It 
reaches its acme in Heaven. But of every 
genuine Christian it may be truly said that 
he " hath eternal life." They that trust on Je- 
sus have Jesus. They that have Jesus have 
the only life which God can give. They that 
have this life have it forever. To possess 
such a faith, with its transforming power, and 
not be conscious of it, seems utterly prepos- 
terous. Salvation is not guess-work. Jesus 
guarantees eternal life to them that are his. 
(IV.) For his inspired apostle assures us 
that saving faith carries with it an inward 
evidence, a witness of the Spirit, an unal- 
terable conviction that brings solid peace. 
He says: "I know whom I have believed, 
and that he is able to keep that which I 
have committed unto him against that day." 
Paul had made Jesus his trustee, and had 
put his everlasting welfare into Jesus's hands. 
So may I do what Paul did, and may hold 
Christ responsible for my salvation as long 
as I keep his commandments. Upon that di- 



SEVEN THINGS WE KNOW ABOUT JESUS. 187 

vine rock I am forever safe ; but not safe for 
one instant if I leave that rock. " Through 
faith I am kept by the power of God unto 
salvation." If faith lets go, all is gone. 
While faith holds to Jesus, I am more sure 
of salvation than that the sun will rise to- 
morrow. God has not pledged an eternal 
sun-rising ; but he has pledged eternal life to 
those who trust and obey his Son Jesus Christ. 
(V.) The fifth fact that every Christian 
may know is that Jesus is our intercessor, 
and is the bestower of answers to our pray- 
ers. John the Apostle (with no fear of any 
first century Tyndalls before his eyes) ex- 
pressly affirms " this is the confidence we 
have in him, that if we ask any thing ac- 
cording to his will, he heareth us. And if 
we know that he hear us, whatsoever we 
ask, we know that we have the petitions 
that we desired of him." Observe the con- 
ditions clearly, for there is a great deal of 
slovenly thinking and talking about prayer. 
God does not promise to gratify all our 
whims or selfish desires. He gives nothing 



188 POINTED PAPERS. 

that is contrary to "his will." Many good 
things are undoubtedly in accordance with 
that will — such as pardon of sin, spiritual 
help to serve him, and the gift of the Di- 
vine Spirit. Now, if we will only leave our 
Master to decide what we ought to have, we 
may know that our prayers will bring the 
answer that is best for us. I do not believe 
that there is such a thing in the universe as 
a neglected prayer ever breathed by docile, 
submissive faith. Emptied of self, I am sure 
of being filled by Jesus. 

(VI.) Another thing the veteran Paul knew, 
and that was that "all things work together 
for good to them that love God." He was 
just then speaking of the "sufferings of this 
present time," and the "all things" evidently 
refer to trials and sharp afflictions. Paul 
knew that crowns were made out of crosses. 
The diadem which Jesus wears was fashioned 
on Calvary, and the heavenly crowns which 
we may aspire to must be wrought out of 
such costly material as penitence, submission, 
suffering, patience, toil, and self-crucifixion. 



SEVEN THINGS WE KNOW ABOUT JESUS. 189 

(VII.) Do you doubt this, my brother? 
Then I have a Bible-passage for you — the 
seventh of the precious things we know about 
Jesus. It is the best wine kept to the last. 
"Beloved, we know that when he shall ap- 
pear we shall be like Mm, for we shall see 
him as he is." Like Jesus ! Our crosses 
also turned into crowns ! Our bodies fash- 
ioned like unto his glorious body! As we 
have borne the image of the earthy, so we 
shall also bear the image of the Heavenly. 
These glorious things we know. Let God be 
true, though every man should prove a liar. 

Now let us gather into one bouquet from 
the King's garden these seven fragrant flow- 
ers. Jesus the Son of God; Jesus our sin- 
bearer ; Jesus the giver of eternal life ; Jesus 
the keeper of our undying souls ; Jesus the 
hearer of our prayers ; Jesus the chastener, 
who can turn crosses into crowns ; and Jesus 
the wonder-worker, who can change us into 
eternal likeness unto himself! These flowers 
will keep sweet till Heaven dawns. 



HELD BY THE RIGHT HAND. 



"HPHOU hast holden me by my right hand ; 
■*- thou shalt afterward receive me to 
glory." This is one of the most inspiring and 
invigorating utterances that ever fell from 
any man who was under the teachings of 
the Holy Spirit. It is an experience, and 
also an assurance. For this world, an actual 
experience ; for the world to come, a glori- 
ous assurance. The religion of Jesus Christ 
is an experimental thing — something to be 
tested by practical results. It claims an 
actual relation between weak, sinful man and 
his Heavenly Father ; between the sinner and 
his divine Saviour. The language of this 
passage is not the language of excited im- 
agination. Millions of the most profoundly 



HELD BY THE RIGHT HAND. 191 

intelligent men and women who ever lived 
have repeated this same strong declaration: 
" Thou hast holden me by my right hand." 

A steamer sinks in mid-ocean. One of the 
passengers, nearly exhausted by long swim- 
ming, sees a loaded life-boat approaching. 
He reaches out his weary hand to a strong 
man in the boat, who grasps it, and keeps 
the swimmer afloat until a safe ship's deck 
is reached. The act of the exhausted man 
in the water is an act of trust. The act of 
the strong man in the boat is one of help 
and sustaining strength. The salvation of 
the drowning sufferer begins with the act of 
the clasping of those two hands. It is con- 
summated by keeping those two hands firmly 
together. The withdrawal of either would be 
fatal. 

Now the salvation of any sinner depends 
on his vital spiritual union to the Lord Je- 
sus. Conversion is the act of joining our 
hands to the pierced hand of the crucified 
Saviour. The new life begins with the tak- 
ing of Christ's hand, and his taking hold, in 



192 POINTED PAPERS. 

infinite love, of our weak hands. Up to the 
time of his regeneration, evely sinner tries to 
walk in his own strength, and goes his own 
wicked way of disobedience. He chooses his 
own path, and walks in the ways of his own 
selfish heart. The rash and reckless Alpine 
traveller who should attempt to ascend the 
Matterhorn without a guide would not be 
more insane than is every human being who, 
in this world of temptations, attempts to live 
without God. Yet every impenitent soul 
ventures on this terrible experiment. 

The beginning of the Christian life is in our 
grasp of faith on the hand of Jesus. Or, 
speaking more correctly, it is the allowing 
of Christ to grasp our "right hand"; for he 
first loved us. Observe that it is not the left 
hand which is to be given to Christ, but the 
right hand — the effective working hand. Then 
the new believer can sing, "He leadeth me.' 7 
Then he can confidently pray: "Lord, lead 
me in a plain path, because of mine ene- 
mies." Henceforth his best and sweetest as- 
piration is: 



HELD BY THE RIGHT HAND. 193 

"Thy way, not mine, Lord, 
However dark it be ! 
Lead me by thine own hand, 
Choose out the path for me. 

"Smooth let it be or rough, 
It will be still the best ; 
Winding or straight, it matters not, 
It leads me to thy rest." 

To every trusting soul the divine promise 
is: "I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy right 
hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help 
thee." What a strong grasp that is which 
Jesus gives to poor, weak human nature. 
All the strength which any converted soul 
possesses is gotten through this contact and 
union with Christ the Omnipotent. Who sup- 
poses that such a man as my eloquent friend 
Gough, with his nervous impulsive tempera- 
ment, and that latent demon of appetite for 
strong drink lurking within him, would ever 
have held out for thirty years, if the Lord 
had not holden him by his right hand? The 
fatal mistake of many a reformed inebriate is 

that when he lets loose of the bottle, he does 
13 



194 POINTED PAPERS. 

not grasp hold on God. Very few are ever 
permanently reformed without the help of 
the divine grace to steady them over the slip- 
pery places of temptation. 

Not only is Christ's grasp a strong one — it 
is a long one also. Here is the only founda- 
tion for the doctrine of the perseverance of 
the saints. Strictly speaking, it is Christ's 
perseverance with the believer that ensures 
his salvation. Jesus loveth his own unto the 
end. "None shall pluck them out of My 
hand." As long as my hand is clasped in my 
Saviour's mighty grasp, all Hell can not sever 
us. This union must be continuous on my 
part also ; for there is a constant temptation 
for me to draw out my hand suddenly and try 
to walk alone. "Just this once," whispers 
pride and presumption. Selfishness whispers : 
"Yonder is smoother walking; go there." 
Whenever I have tried this experiment of 
wicked folly, then came the backslider's wan- 
derings and bruising falls. Peter undertook 
once to go alone, and he fell within an hour. 
Afterward he said, "I will trust"; and he fell 



HELD BY THE RIGHT HAND. 195 

into a sweet slumber in the dungeon to be 
awakened by an angel. 

There is a perpetual need of being held by 
our right hand; for life's journey is over an 
untried road, with steep hills of difficulty con- 
stantly confronting us. Fear looks up the 
precipitous pathway, and says, "That is too 
much for me." Jesus replies, "Fear not, I 
will help thee.' 7 And, with our five fingers 
of faith made fast in his hold of love, we 
push upward to the summit. Life is full of 
"slippery places, 77 too. We come upon them 
unawares, as Alpine travellers come upon a 
glare of ice covered by thin coats of snow. 
Sudden prosperity is a slippery place for any 
man to tread upon. Where one child of G-od 
is cast down by adversity, a score slip and 
tumble through the temptations of prosperity. 
I could name hundreds of church-members 
whose religion has declined in proportion as 
their incomes went up. Great popularity is 
a position of peril. "Woe unto you when all 
men shall speak well of you. 77 Business men 
tell us that they are constantly exposed to 



196 POINTED PAPERS. 

slippery practices, and that it is increasingly 
difficult to make money with a clean con- 
science and the approval of Glod. Political 
pursuits are proverbially full of pitfalls. Sud- 
den assaults of the Devil beset every Chris- 
tian as they beset Joseph and David, and 
Him who was greater than either. As a child 
walking over a slippery and dangerous path 
cries out: "Father, I am falling!" and has 
but a moment to catch its father's hand, so 
every believer sees hours when only the hand 
of Jesus comes between him and the abysses 
of destruction. When I cried, "My foot slip- 
peth!" thy mercy, Lord, held me up. 

And so every pilgrim of Jesus goes on his 
upward way. As he climbs a rugged steep, 
panting under his heavy load, he cries out, 
My burden is too heavy for me ! A Heaven- 
ly Friend at his side answers: "Cast thy bur- 
den upon me. I will hold thee by thy right 
hand, and afterward receive thee to glory." 
Again I seem to see that pilgrim, sorely be- 
set by evil spirits. He cries out: "Lord! 
save me, or I perish." The answer comes 



HELD BY THE RIGHT HAND. 197 

quickly: "None shall be able to pluck thee 
out of my hand. 77 Before the pilgrim there 
stretches a dizzy plateau of ice, broken by 
many a concealed crevasse many fathoms 
deep. Still the assuring voice keeps speak- 
ing — Hold fast to me, and afterward I will 
receive thee to glory. 

Higher and still higher the trusting soul 
mounts upward. At length a glittering gate- 
way opens. The gate is of solid pearl, and 
it opens upon a street of pure gold — as it 
were, transparent glass. As the pilgrim en- 
ters the overwhelming light, the last words 
that we catch are these: "Oh! blessed Jesus; 
thou hast h olden me by my right hand, and 
now thou art receiving me to Glory. 77 



"SO DID NOT I. 77 



A S we walk through history with a Di- 
-^-*- ogenes's lantern in our hand, it is 
always pleasant to come upon an honest and 
a noble man. Such an one was Nehemiah, 
the rebuilder and reformer of Jerusalem. He 
stands in the Scripture gallery of characters 
as John Hampden's statue stands in the line 
of illustrious worthies which flanks the en- 
trance to the British Parliament. 

Nehemiah was a man who understood the 
power of that prodigious word ; 'JVb." When 
he left the Persian capital at Shushan, he 
went down to Jerusalem determined to do 
something to relieve his suffering people 
there. The dear old city was in ruins. The 
Jews who had returned thither from Babylon 
were oppressed and plundered. The same 



199 



kind of abuses had crept in which have dis- 
graced some of our city governments. Ne- 
hemiah lays hold of practical reforms with an 
unsparing hand. First he arouses the people 
with a trumpet-peal to " rise up and build 77 
the ruined walls. Then he abolishes the op- 
pressive taxation, and the desecrations of the 
Sabbath and the Temple. His predecessors 
in office had been receiving big salaries, and 
had allowed their underlings to fleece the 
people. Nehemiah might have cited their 
example as a precedent, and followed in their 
wake — after the manner in which greedy of- 
ficeholders or plunderers thrust their arms 
into public treasuries in our day. But his 
simple, manly statement is: "So did not I, 
because of the fear of God." Nobly said ! 
We wish every young man would write those 
sharp, ringing words in his note-book, and de- 
termine to make the same answer whenever 
he is tempted to do a selfish or a wicked act. 
The most tremendous word in the English 
language is the short yet mighty word NO. 
It has been the pivot on which innumerable 



200 POINTED PAPERS. 

destinies have turned, for this world and the 
next. Spoken at the right moment, it has 
saved multitudes from disgrace, from ruin — 
yes, from an endless hell ! The splendid ca- 
reer of Joseph turned on the prompt "no" 
spoken at the very nick of time. Had he 
stopped to parley with that wanton woman 
(as too many young men stop to talk with 
a bright- eyed temptress in the street), he 
would have been lost. "How can I do this 
great wickedness and sin against God ? " saved 
him from the dizzy edge of the precipice. 
Daniel might easily have said to himself: 
"Oh! every body about the court here drinks 
wine and lives high on the king's meat. I 
do not want to be thought queer or puritan- 
ical." He dared to be singular. At the end 
of two weeks he had a cleaner countenance 
and a sweeter breath than any of the fast- 
livers in the palace. "So did not I" was the 
motto of this sturdy young teetotaler. If he 
had yielded to the current of temptation and 
drifted with it, we never should have heard 
of such a man as Daniel. 



" SO DID NOT I." 201 

All the people who make a marked suc- 
cess in life and who achieve any good work 
for God are the people who are not ashamed 
to be thought singular. The man who runs 
with the crowd counts for nothing. It is 
when he turns about and faces the multi- 
tude who are rushing on to do evil that he 
commands every eye. Then by a bold pro- 
test he may "put a thousand to flight." So 
the young monk, Luther, turned about and 
faced the hosts of the Papacy. His heroic 
"No," nailed up on the church-door of Wit- 
tenberg, aroused Europe from its delusive and 
deadly dreams. Standing alone, he was re- 
enforced by the Almighty. 

But it is not only the Luthers, the Wil- 
berforces, the John Quincy Adamses, and the 
Sumners who make their mark by being sin- 
gular. Every young man and woman, in 
their humbler spheres, must come out and 
be separate from the company of sinners, if 
they wish to save their characters and their 
souls. The downward pull of sin is tremen- 
dous. To be able firmly to say "Yet will I 



202 POINTED PAPERS. 

not " requires the grace from above in the 
heart. There is a subtle pull, also, in the 
drift of sinful fashion and usage which carries 
away every one who is not well established 
on a Bible conscience. Three fourths of all 
the persons who are drowned on the sea-shore 
are swept out by the undertow. This is the 
secret influence which takes hold of so many 
church-members and carries them off into ex- 
travagant living, into sinful amusements, and 
all manner of worldly conformities. Every 
true Christian is bound to be a nonconform- 
ist. If he is not well anchored for Christ, he 
is swept away by the undertow. The bot- 
tom of the great deep is strewed with such 
backsliders. 

I would press this truth home upon every 
young man who reads this ^article : your sal- 
vation depends on your ability to say " No." 
When your principle is put to the test, ask 
God's help and stand firm. The messmates 
of Captain Hedley Vicars sneered at him as 
a "Methodist" and a fanatic. He put his 
Bible on the table in his tent and then stood 



" SO DID NOT I." 203 

by his colors. A British soldier once told me 
that Vicars was a spiritual power in his regi- 
ment. We had just such Christian heroes in 
our army during the war. 

In every school the difference is clearly 
marked between the boy who has moral 
pluck and the boy who is mere pulp. The 
one knows how to say "No." The other is 
so afraid of being thought "verdant" that he 
soon kills every thing pure and fresh and 
manly in his character and dries up into a 
premature hardness of heart. Five lads were 
once gathered in a room at boarding-school, 
and four of them engaged in a game of cards, 
which was expressly forbidden by the rules. 
One of the players was called out. The three 
said to the quiet lad, who was busy at some- 
thing else : "Come, take a hand with us. It 
is too bad to have the game broken up." "I 
do not know one card from another." "That 
makes no difference," exclaimed the players. 
"We will show you how. Come along." 
Now, that was a turning-point in that lad's 
life. He nobly said: "My father does not 



204 POINTED PAPERS. 

wish me to play cards, and I will not disobey 
him." That sentence settled the matter and 
settled his position among his associates. 
He was the boy who could say "No"; and 
thenceforward his victories were made easy 
and sure. I well remember the pressure 
brought to bear in college upon every young 
man to join in a wine-drink or to take a hand 
in some contraband amusement. Some tim- 
ber got well seasoned. Some of the other 
sort got well rotted through with sensuality 
and vice. The Nehemiahs at college have 
been Nehemiahs ever since. The boy was 
father of the man. 

The only motive that could hold back the 
brave nonconformist at Jerusalem was a god- 
ly conscience. "So did not I, because of the 
fear of God J 1 This ever-present principle 
held him firm when temptation struck him, 
as the undercurrents strike against the keel. 
What the fear of G-od did for Nehemiah, faith 
in the Lord Jesus will do for you. Christ 
must be to you a pattern, and he must be to 
you a power. It is not enough to believe on 



"SO DID NOT I." 205 

Jesus. You must "add to your faith cour- 
age 11 (for that is the real meaning of the word 
translated "virtue" in our English Bibles). 
Then, with Christ as your model and Christ as 
your inward might, you will always be able 
to face down temptation with the iron an- 
swer: "So will not I." 



ROOTED BY THE RIVERS. 



r I ^HE spring has been calling the roll in 
•*• orchard and forest. Every living tree 
has ere this responded by issuing its leaves 
or bedecking itself with blossoms. Some are 
well on their way with tiny germs of fruit. 
The dead trees give no answer to the call. 
A sick tree or a dead tree is a sad sight, 
especially if it once shaded our childhood's 
sports or shook down its generous fruit into 
our baskets. 

A diseased or dying Christian is a far sad- 
der sight. The marks of health and growth 
in a Christian are described in the Bible by 
the marks of health and growth in a tree. 
The tests of life or of decay and death are the 
same. One of the most happy descriptions of 
a flourishing Christian ever written is that one 



ROOTED BY THE RIVERS. 207 

contained in the seventeenth chapter of Jere- 
miah: "He shall be as a tree planted by the 
waters and that spreadeth out her roots by 
the rivers, and shall not see when heat Com- 
eth, but her leaf shall be green. She shall 
not be troubled in the year of drought, nei- 
ther shall she cease from yielding fruit. 77 

This is God's idea of a flourishing Chris- 
tian. Hardly any text in his Word affords 
a better test for each one of us to try him- 
self by than this beautiful but searching pas- 
sage. It is very thorough. It includes both 
the inward motive and the outward life. Let 
us look at ourselves a few moments as this 
passage reveals to us what we ought to be. 

(1.) The first mark of a healthy Christian 
is that he is rooted by the rivers of water. 
In that Oriental country water was the staff 
of life to man and beast and plant. A tree 
whose roots were not kissed by some unfail- 
ing vein of moisture was doomed to certain 
death. What the root is to a tree are the 
secret motives and affections of the heart to 
each one of us. No part of the tree is so 



208 POINTED PAPERS. 

invisible as its roots. But the condition of 
the tree soon reports just where its roots are 
and what they are about. Dryness below 
ground soon means deadness above ground. 
The roots of our religious life are our se- 
cret motives and the affections which govern 
us. God only beholds them, but men soon 
discover what they are from the evidence 
of daily conduct. We wonder, for example, 
why a certain church-member is so lax in his 
devotions and loose in his practices. The rea- 
son is that, while his trunk and his branches 
are over on the church side of the wall, his 
roots run under the wall and dwell in the 
bad soil on the other side. Outwardly the 
man is a Christian professor. Inwardly he 
is a thorough "man of the world," with no 
genuine love of Jesus pervading his heart. 
A Christless heart will soon yield a Christ- 
less life. "If ye abide in me ye shall bear 
fruit." When the Master said this he indi- 
cated clearly that heart-union to himself was 
the only source of permanent Christian living. 
Some men root down into covetousness. 



ROOTED BY THE RIVERS. 209 

There is no need of shaking their boughs 
with the vain hope of getting any apples of 
liberality. Others root into secret sensual- 
ity. Their thoughts are impure. Lust fills 
their souls. By and by they are detected 
in some open act of lechery or drunkenness. 
The conversion of a sensual man or woman 
which does not radically change the affections 
and principles of the heart is not a genuine 
conversion. The reason why so many " re- 
formed " sensualists go speedily back to their 
cups or their licentiousness is that their roots 
of character were never touched. They were 
never transplanted into Christ. They were 
never "renewed in the inner man by the 
Divine Spirit." 

A true servant of Jesus draws his motives 
of action from his deep loyalty, his deep heart- 
love to his dear Lord. Up through these 
roots comes his daily devotion to those things 
which are pure and holy and of good report. 
These are the motives which keep him self- 
denying and steadfast. They hold him firm 

in moments of sudden temptation, as stout 
14 



210 POINTED PAPERS. 

roots hold the tree against the assaults of a 
gale. Paul was so rooted and grounded in 
love to his Saviour that no blast of persecu- 
tion ever shook him for an instant. Stran- 
gers must have wondered why these early 
apostles so rejoiced in bearing bloody stripes 
and in being locked up within filthy dun- 
geons. They little knew the depth and the 
strength of that victorious love of the Cruci- 
fied which lived down in their bottommost 
souls and kept them by the "rivers of wa- 
ter.' 7 Jesus kept them and Jesus fed their 
strength. This is the double office of a root: 
it holds and it feeds. All the nourishment 
of the vital sap issues from it. Now, then, 
here is the test question with me, and with 
you, my brother. Are our hearts in all their 
affections and desires and motives so united 
to Jesus Christ that we draw Mm up into 
our daily lives? Do we keep the connection 
close with secret prayer? Does this inward 
love of our Lord underlie our whole charac- 
ter? Is Jesus in us? Is his law our law, 
and his interests our interests, and to please 



ROOTED BY THE RIVERS. 211 

him the first instinct of our being? Then we 
are rooted by the river of unfailing waters. 
(2.) While the soul thus reaches down 
through its every rootlet into Christ's deep, 
cool well there is no danger that our leaves 
will wither. Our " leaf shall be green." 
Some professors have a very dingy look. 
Their clammy leaves get so powdered over 
with the dust of worldliness that they are 
very unsightly objects. They are not attract- 
ive with any beauty of holiness. When peo- 
ple eye them closely, they see only cross 
censoriousness, or stingy selfishness, or frivo- 
lous formality. There are others whose leaf 
turns yellow very soon after they are set out 
in the Church. This betrays lack of moisture 
at the root, or perhaps a secret worm of sin 
there, that is killing the tree by inches. The 
leaf is the tell-tale of the root and the soil. 
It is a wretched mistake to deal with the ex- 
ternals of our conduct while we neglect the 
condition of our hearts. If the heart is by 
the rivers of water the leaf will always be 
glossy and green. 



212 POINTED PAPERS. 

(3.) Nor will the drought affect a well- 
rooted Christian. Some church-members are 
only flourishing during the heavy rains of a 
revival time. The rest of the year they are 
brown and barren. If pastors get sick of 
such periodical professors, how weary Jesus 
must be with them! But the joy of every 
pastor is that evergreen Christian who, when 
the community is as dry spiritually as sum- 
mer dust, keeps his heart fresh, and his 
prayers fervent, and his hands open, and his 
daily life as beautiful as a palm-tree. 

He never ceases to yield fruit. Every year 
is a bearing year. It is his fixed habit to 
attend the place of prayer, to give accord- 
ing to his means, to pay every man his due, 
to share, his loaf with the suffering, to stand 
for Christ on every occasion and before every 
company. He speaks out when cowards are 
dumb. He is " always abounding" in the 
work of the Lord. We go to such a man 
as we go to a generous old Yergalieu pear- 
tree in the month of September, and never 
come away empty. The ground under his 



ROOTED BY THE RIVERS. 213 

boughs always has something sweet for our 
basket. 

And when God shakes such deep-rooted 
Christians with severe trials, how the ripe 
fruits do rattle down. Blessed be the disci- 
pline which makes me reach out my soul's 
roots into closer union with Jesus! Blessed 
be the dews of the Spirit which keep my 
leaf ever green ! Blessed be the trials which 
shake down the ripe golden fruits from the 
branches ! 



HELP FROM THE THRONE. 



/^vNCE, and once only, we read in the Bi- 
^-^ ble of a "throne of grace." It is a 
beautiful expression, drawn from the mercy- 
seat, where the high-priest presented his offer- 
ings, made his supplications for the people, 
and received answers from God. Jesus is 
our intercessor, and therefore every believer 
may come to that throne of mercy, and come 
"boldly," too. The original Greek is "with 
freedom of speech." And we are permitted 
to come very often ; for the only limitation 
is that we are to ask for help at the throne 
in every "time of need." 

These emergencies arise constantly. An 
hour of temptation is an hour of need. A 
time of sudden adversity — as when the first 



HELP FROM THE THRONE. 215 

blow of the cyclone tears our canvas from 
the spars — this is a time of need. Sudden 
prosperity, too, may be equally dangerous, 
and demand an immediate supply of grace to 
bear it. If a disagreeable duty is rolled on 
us, or a most irritating provocation is thrown 
like a torpedo, at our feet — then we must 
have instant grace for the emergency. Not 
a day in our Christian lives but brings its 
hour of need. What a glorious promise it 
is, brother! that you and I are allowed to 
come directly to the throne, and obtain help 
for every one of these thousand necessities! 
This single verse in the fourth chapter of He- 
brews would be worth making a revelation 
from heaven for. How does God help us? 
What are his methods of supply ? 

(I.) God does not give us ready money. 
He issues his promissory notes, and then pays 
them when faith presents them at the throne. 
Each one of us has a check-book. Just as 
every note of the Bank of England repre- 
sents just so much bullion in its vaults, so a 
Christian's promises represent "the unsearch- 



216 POINTED PAPERS. 

able riches of Christ." His assets are infinite. 
When we get bankrupt in duty, we some- 
times talk as if the Divine Grace had "sus- 
pended" or "broke"; but the failure is with 
us. We do not go to the throne and present 
the promises for help. Jesus never repudi- 
ates. He longs to give more than we have 
the faith to ask. If half the time spent in 
worrying over our troubles were spent in 
seeking help from God, we should sooner 
get relief. 

Too often we fall to making an ado, like 
the hired weepers and wailers in the house of 
Jairus. Unbelief wrings its hands, and cries, 
"All is over." If we would quietly call for 
Jesus, he would come to us in our hour of 
need, and serenely say, "What mean ye by 
this ado? the maiden is not dead but sleep- 
eth." Then we would put all the noisy com- 
plainers, and the disgraceful fears, out of the 
room, and calmly speak the word "Talitha 
cumi! — maiden arise!" I often think that 
this story of Christ's raising of the dead 
maiden was given us to teach Christians 



HELP FROM THE THRONE. 217 

how to act in times of trouble. Instead of 
letting our unbelief rave and tear its hair, 
we should call straightway for the Master. 
Our emergency is his opportunity. The time 
for help is our time of need. 

(II.) God sometimes helps us by means of 
adverse circumstances. He makes troubles to 
work together for good to them that love 
him. What a train of troubles overtook Jo- 
seph from the time when he was put into 
the pit until he was put into the prison! 
But by and by he looks his mean and blush- 
ing brothers right in their faces, and says, 
u Ye thought evil against me ; but God meant 
it unto good. 11 So our God is constantly over- 
ruling our troubles for the advancement of 
our good and of his glory. It helps a vine 
to be pruned. Our Father uses the knife 
when he sees that we require it. It is only 
one of his ways of helping us in the time of 
need. 

(III.) Every true life of faith has scenes 
in it when help comes — as it did to Elijah 
at the brook Cherith — from an unexpected 



218 POINTED PAPERS. 

quarter. The raven lights at our feet with 
food, and the dry brook begins to sing again 
with water. That is a good story which Spur- 
geon tells us of his grandfather, when the 
family cow died, and left the poor pastor's 
children without their staff of life. 

"What will you do now?" said my grand- 
mother. 

" I can not tell what we shall do now," 
said he, "but I know what God will do; God 
will provide for us. We must have milk for 
the children." 

The next morning there came £20 to him. 
He had never made application to the fund 
for the relief of ministers ; but on that day 
there were £5 left when they had divided 
the money, and one said, " There is poor 
Mr. Spurgeon down in Essex, suppose we 
send it to him. The chairman — a Mr. Mor- 
ley of his day — said, "We had better make 
it £10, and Til give £5." Another £5 was 
offered by another member, if a like amount 
could be raised, to make it up to £20 ; which 
was done. They knew nothing about my 



HELP FROM THE THRONE. 219 

grandfather's cow ; but God did, you see ; 
and there was the new cow for him. And 
those gentlemen in London were not aware 
of the importance of the service which they 
had rendered.' 7 

The charm of this little incident is that 
the elder Spurgeon really took his Lord at 
his word when he said, "Take no anxious 
thought for the morrow." This is the way 
that George Muller manages his orphan- 
houses. He goes to the throne ; and God 
puts it into good men's hearts to send to 
Brother Muller the funds to help in time of 
need. Brethren! He who sits on that throne 
of grace knows what things ye have need of, 
and knows the best way to help us. 

"It may not be my way; it may not be thy way, 
But yet in his own way, the Lord will provide." 

(IV.) As long as we work on God's line, 
he will aid us. When we attempt to work 
on our own lines, he rebukes us with failure. 
When Peter drew his sword to defend Jesus 
and himself, the Master calmly says, " Put up 



220 POINTED PAPERS. 

thy sword !" But when Peter stood up to 
preach at Pentecost, that same Jesus reward- 
ed him with three thousand souls in one day. 
Here is encouragement for faithful pastors. 
(V.) Our last thought is that the bell-rope 
of fervent prayer reaches up to the throne. 
Let us pull that bell in our time of need, 
with a strong hand. When thou hast pulled 
it boldly, wait till the blessing comes. 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 



"A /TY beloved friend D. L. Moody is not a 
XT J. genius. He has no scholastic culture. 
For many years he sold boots and shoes in 
Chicago. His power lies in his simple-heart- 
ed devotion to Christ. "This one tiling he 
does." He saturates his mind with the Word 
of God, he seeks the baptism of the Holy 
Spirit; and then he throws himself into the 
work of doing good, seizing the first oppor- 
tunities that offer and laboring with those 
whom God puts in his way. At a London 
prayer -meeting I met Henry Varley, the 
"London Butcher," a man who once kept 
his butcher's stall during the week, and 
preached Jesus Christ to the masses on the 
Sabbath. His work so grew upon him that 



222 POINTED PAPERS. 

he has laid aside his cleaver and his butch- 
er's frock, and devotes his whole time to 
preaching the Gospel among London's one 
million of ignorant people. Varley is not a 
genius, either. He has no diploma from 
Eaton or Oxford. Yet hundreds of scholarly 
graduates from the old universities fall far 
behind the converted butcher in successful 
winning of souls to Christ. His power lies 
in his fervid zeal, and his prodigious earnest- 
ness to save souls. 

And what is true of D. L. Moody and of 
Henry Yarley is also true of that remarkable 
man of faith, George Muller, who has gath- 
ered nearly ten thousand children into his 
orphan-houses at Ashley Down (near Bristol). 
I went one hundred miles to see George 
Muller, and reached Bristol just as his even- 
ing prayer-meeting was closing in "Bethes- 
da Chapel." The audience were retiring. I 
went in by a back-door, and saw Mr. Muller 
standing behind the pulpit and talking with 
a poor boy. The lad seemed to be telling his 
story to the great, simple-hearted philanthro- 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 223 

pist ; and as the good man listened he took 
down a memorandum on a card. I stood 
and looked at the beautiful tableau for some 
time — Muller and the poor boy laying their 
heads and hearts together. The countenance 
of Muller is benevolence itself. He is not 
a man of brilliant powers ; he has some 
"crotchets," and does not believe in denom- 
inational systems and usages. But he has a 
tremendous faith in God, and in saving men 
by the power of love. His faith, too, works 
in common-sense methods. He is a capital 
manager and the very furthest possible from 
the mere enthusiast. Those headlong vision- 
aries who have tried to imitate him, without 
his sagacity and devout waiting on God, have 
failed most wretchedly. 

We might go on and multiply the cases of 
men and women like these, and like Harlan 
Page, and Sarah Martin, and Carvosso, and 
Elizabeth Fry, and Father Mathew, the tem- 
perance apostle. Theirs was heart -power. 
The}' loved God and their fellow-creatures. 
They loved the Divine Jesus, and humbly 



224 POINTED PAPERS. 

sought to imitate him by "going about do- 
ing good." Their vocation was not to write 
treatises, or to utter profound or novel the- 
ories. Their only talent was the talent for 
doing good ; their only gift was the gift of 
the Holy Spirit, which taught them what to 
do and how to do it. 

Now there is a blessed encouragement in 
studying the lives and usefulness of such per- 
sons. For the great mass of Christian people 
are not geniuses. Men and women of great 
intellect and profound culture are the small 
minority. If the world must wait to be saved 
by them alone, then it is doomed to perish. 
But there are good people enough in this 
wicked world to-day to revolutionize it, if they 
would only consecrate what they have and 
what they are to Jesus Christ, as the Pages 
and Mullers and Sarah Martins have done. 
If each individual Christian would only try 
to imitate Christ, the millennial era would 
dawn, and the "apostolic church" would be 
once more realized. 

The great truth to be taught nowadays is 



THE SECRET OF POWER. 225 

that every member of Christ's flock is called 
to Christ's service, in some way or method. 
The humblest have a share in the work, and 
may have a share in the glory at the final 
day of coronation. That individual church in 
which the " rank and file " are all seeking the 
Spirit, and living lives of personal consecra- 
tion to Christ is more likely to be a power- 
ful church than if it had a Whitfield or a 
Chalmers for its pastor. The need of the 
hour is not for more geniuses and scholars 
in the pulpit, but for more personal piety 
and consecration among the masses of God's 
people. 

There is prodigious power in single-hearted 
love of Christ, and honest determination to 
do all the good that we can to a fellow-sin- 
ner. The secret of power is in Christ dwelling 
in us. It requires no genius, or erudition, 
or social rank to possess this blessed gift. A 
man of very moderate talents becomes a lead- 
ing man in the Church or in society as soon 
as Christ gets complete hold of him. I can 

point to more than one plain, modest, mod- 
15 



226 POINTED PAPERS. 

erately-endowed Christian who has attained 
to a great propelling power in the community 
simply from the momentum of his godliness. 
He follows Christ so steadily and so zealously 
that he carries others with him by his sheer 
momentum. Great as is the result of what 
he aims to do, he does still more by his un- 
conscious influence. His face shines from in- 
tercourse with God, though, like Moses, he 
may be in happy ignorance of its shining. 

This is the power we need in our churches. 
Happy is that church that hath it in the full- 
est measure ! Blessed be that pastor who can 
do the most to promote it! 



LIFE MORE ABUNDANTLY; 7 



HPHESE are times in which every follower 
-*■ of Jesus should be seeking an increase 
of spiritual life, and a fresh baptism of the 
Holy Spirit. The man who is empty himself 
can not fill others. A half converted pro- 
fessor is not likely to lead many sinners to 
the Saviour. How can the poor brother who 
is busy in blowing up his farthing rushlight 
to keep it from going out, how can he "so 
shine as to glorify" God, or be a burner to 
illuminate the way to Jesus? He may have 
a little life — just enough to keep him gasp- 
ing feebly. What he needs is "life more 
abundantly." Jesus promises this. He came 
to give it to those who seek aright for it. 
1. One mark of this more abundant life is 



228 POINTED PAPERS. 

an increase of vigor. A cherry-tree in my 
yard used to drop down a few blossoms in 
May, but produced no cherries. Then we 
dug about it, and put in a load of fertilizer 
around the roots ; and lo ! the next July it 
was crimsoned with rich fruit. Its more 
abundant life made it bear profusely. The 
reason why any Christian does not produce 
the fruits of the Spirit is simple want of in- 
ward vigor of grace. He needs the tillage 
of prayer, and Bible-study, and a deep sub- 
soiling of new repentance and new faith in 
Christ, a new work of the Holy Grhost. Half 
of the forces in Christ's army are either in 
the hospitals or off on furlough. The spir- 
itual quickening which brings these useless 
invalids out of their beds, and these deserters 
back into the ranks, constitutes a genuine 
revival. "When a church begins to feel this 
new life, sinners are awakened. The dead 
are raised. Jesus lives again in that com- 
munity, in the persons of his active, Christ- 
like followers. 

2. A second evidence of the "life more 



" LIFE MORE ABUNDANTLY." 229 

abundantly " is an increase of faith. A small 
faith can move molehills. But it needs a 
stout faith to remove mountains. To grapple 
with stubborn sins and to convert the "hard 
cases," and to scale the strongholds of Satan, 
is given only to those who have a prodigious 
hold on God. Luther spent three hours a 
day in prayer, in order to get the stamina for 
his battle with the Papacy. All things are 
possible to him that trusts. A pastor who can 
believingly ask for great harvests, and then 
sows diligently, rarely comes into his barn 
with an empty wagon. The sheaves are filled 
up high. Spurgeon tells us of an earnest but 
uncouth minister who was sent into a desper- 
ately irreligious region ; and in his first ser- 
mon he said to the people, "Look here! You 
may wriggle and twist, and twist, and you 
may harden your hearts as much as you like, 
but before this time twelvemonth, five hun- 
dred souls here will be converted. I have 
asked this of the Lord, and he has given it 
to me." Spurgeon says that the sturdy faith 
of this man of prayer got its reward, and 



230 POINTED PAPERS. 

within the year there were over seven hun- 
dred hopeful conversions. We need the faith 
which believes Jesus when he says, "If ye 
shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." 
If God spared not his own Son, but delivered 
him up for us all, how shall he not with him 
also freely give us all things ? 

3. With a more abundant life, believers 
will have a more abundant joy. A moping, 
sour, discontented, grumbling Christian, is a 
disgrace to the name he bears. If such a 
poor bulrush should ask a shrewd man of 
the world to embrace Christianity, the man 
might well reply, " I now have troubles 
enough of my own already without being 
troubled with such a doleful religion as yours 
is"; and he would be right. A cheerful, sun- 
ny-faced piety, which rejoices in the Lord al- 
ways, wins converts. What a joyous brace 
of prisoners were those two men who were 
locked down in Philippics horrid dungeon 
at midnight! They are singing down there 
until the old Bastile rings again. The other 
prisoners hear them. The Lord has put a 



"life more abundantly." 231 

new song into their mouths. Those apostolic 
Christians had their mouths filled with holy 
joy, and their tongues with singing. 

The best days of the Church have always 
been its singing days. Luther set all Ger- 
many to chanting the "Ein feste burg," and 
the priests found that unless they could stop 
the contagion of holy song, the Reformation 
would spread like a fire in a stubble-field. 
John Wesley was a master-builder; but the 
walls of Methodism never would have gone 
up so rapidly if the}^ had not been built to 
Charles Wesley's music. That one hymn, 
4 'Jesus lover of my soul," gave the pitch 
to a thousand praise-meetings. In dear old 
Scotland Messrs. Moody and Sankey worked 
in partnership. The one preached the glori- 
ous Gospel ; the other sang it. Edinburgh is 
becoming filled with "singing bands." They 
are the outcome of revival joys. When a 
soul is filled with the joy of the Lord, the 
voice of song becomes as natural as it is with 
a group of happy children to shout for glee. 
Heaven is full of seraphic song, because 



232 POINTED PAPERS. 

heaven is alive with seraphic bliss. And he 
who has Jesus and his grace more abundantly 
in his soul, will "break forth into singing." 
We even read in the prophet Zephaniah 
that the Lord God rejoices over Zion ''with 
singing " ! 

Now here are three marks of the more 
abundant life in Christ. One of them is the 
healthy vigor that sloughs off disease, and 
impurities, and makes a Christian strong in 
the Lord. The second is a stalwart faith. 
The third is peace of mind and joy in the 
Holy Ghost. All these are within the reach 
of every one who will strive after an abound- 
ing life in Jesus. He who asks receives ; he 
who seeks shall find; he who knocks, shall 
be admitted to this full fellowship with Christ. 



THE SOUL'S EAGLE-FLIGHT. 



" r I ^HEY that wait on the Lord shall renew 
"*■ their strength. They shall mount up 
with wings as eagles." There is a ring in 
this passage like the blast of a bugle. He 
makes a very great mistake who supposes 
that the word "wait" implies an indolent 
passivity. The Hebrew word has brawn and 
bone in it ; its signification is primarily to be 
strong — strong enough to hold out under pres- 
sure. Thence the word came to signify pa- 
tience as the opposite of discouragement and 
peevishness. When a soul is ready to do 
God's will, and to submit cheerfully to God's 
discipline, and to receive such fulness of sup- 
ply as God is willing to bestow, that soul 
may be truly said to "wait on the Lord." 
It is a great grace, and it leads to a great 
glory. 



234 POINTED PAPERS. 

The man who thus waits on God renews 
his strength. He does more ; he receives a 
wonderful inspiration. He " shall mount up 
with wings as an eagle." Naturalists tell us 
that the special power of the eagle is in his 
wings. He can fly in the teeth of a gale, 
and go out on long voy agings towards the 
clouds, and play the aeronaut for hours with- 
out weariness. His "conversation is in the 
heavens." The sparrow twitters from the 
housetop ; the dove is content to abide in 
the forest ; but eagles are children of the 
skies, and playmates of the storm. Even 
their nests are on the mountain crags. 

So God means that every soul which waits 
on him shall sometimes soar. Not creep, or 
grovel in the muck of worldliness, or crouch 
in bondage to man or devils, but rise above 
all these baser things into the atmosphere of 
heaven. When a soul binds itself to God, it 
finds wings. Such an one has a citizenship 
in the skies. He catches inspiration from the 
indwelling Spirit. He rises above the chill- 
ing fogs of doubt, gains a wide outlook, is 



the soul's eagle-flight. 235 

filled with ennobling thoughts, and actually 
feels that he is an heir to a celestial inheri- 
tance. He out/lies the petty vexations that 
worry the worldling, and the grovelling lusts 
that drag the selfish and sensual soul down 
into the mire. His soul-life is hid with Christ 
in God. What to him, in such holy hours, 
are the fear of man, or the greed of gold, or 
the thirst for applause, or the sting of pov- 
erty, or the apprehension of death? Why 
should he chafe or fret his spirit with the 
petty anxieties that worry poor creatures who 
live without God and without hope? What 
cares the eagle, as he bathes his wing in 
the translucent gold of the sunbeam — for 
all the turmoil, the smoke, the clouds, or 
even the lightnings that play far beneath 
him ? He flies in company with the un- 
clouded sun. So a heaven-bound soul, filled 
with the joys of the Holy Spirit, flies in com- 
pany with God. 

Brother in Christ Jesus! you may realize 
these happy experiences, if you will but wait 
on him, if you will but knit your soul to Je- 



236 POINTED PAPERS. 

sus. You will be surprised to find what an 
uplift there is in your religion. You will dis- 
cover how it can carry you above base and 
sensual desires ; how it can give birth to pure 
and holy meditatioDS ; how it can kindle joy 
in seasons of dark adversities and bereave- 
ments ; how it can keep your hope as serene 
and shiniog as the morning star. Strive after 
this, by living less on self, and more on Jesus. 
Live more like a son of God or a daughter of 
God, with the full feeling of adoption. Set 
your affections on things above. Don't count 
these perishable things to be } 7 our treasures. 
Seek better ones in heaven. So shall prayer, 
and Bible-study, and the daily victory over 
sin, and the doing of God's will, renew your 
strength. You will mount up with wings as 
eagles, until you grow heavenly -minded — ■ 
"which is life and peace." This is the "high- 
er life " to which Christ calls every believer. 
And when you and I are inclined to nestle 
down in indolence and self-indulgence, God 
"stirs up our nests" and bids us fly towards 
him. 



GOD'S SINGERS. 



r I ^HE robins are about. We saw one this 
■*■ morning. He was as welcome a mes- 
senger as the dove that flew back to Noah, 
to tell him that the waters were abated from 
off the face of the earth. This robin's mes- 
sage is: "The winter is over and gone; the 
flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the 
singing of birds is come.' 7 Within the next 
thirty days the first choir will be rehearsing 
in all the forests, and the orchards. We 
prisoners in the city will not hear much of 
the music ; for our birds are mostly those 
quiet little quakers, the sparrows, who dress 
in plain grey, and cultivate silence in their 
meetings. But the country-folk will have 
concerts finer than Nilsson's or Kellogg's, 
without paying a copper for a ticket. 



238 POINTED PAPERS. 

Singing plays a great part in God's Word, 
and in God's world. Just turn over your 
concordance, and see in how many passages 
the word occurs. The first song we read of 
was that jubilant anthem which rang out over 
the Red Sea, when Moses and the children of 
Israel "sang a song unto the Lord." Was 
there no singing ever known before? There 
must have been. Jubal must have accom- 
panied his harp with the voice. When La- 
ban scolded Jacob for stealing away so slyly, 
he told him that he would have cheered his 
going "with songs and tabret and harp." 
Perhaps Noah's family relieved their loneli- 
ness in the ark by some lively household 
music. Nay; mother Eve may have crooned 
a lullaby over her first baby. The highest 
period of Jewish glory was the highest era 
of song. Her greatest king was the king of 
singers. "I will sing unto the Lord as long 
as I live," exclaims the royal Psalmist. Our 
Divine Lord and his disciples certainly sang 
one hymn together ; and it is likely that they 
often mingled their voices in the grand old 



god's singers. 239 

Hebrew melodies. Even the mighty God is 
described in the book of Zephaniah as re- 
joicing over Zion "with singing." 

What an exquisite touch that is in ancient 
Job where a "widow's heart is made to sing 
for joy." So Paul and Silas felt such in- 
ward gratitude and joy that even at mid- 
night in their noxious and filthy dungeon, 
they pealed out God's praises. Blessing on 
the triumphant grace that giveth songs in the 
night! When a soul is filled with the love 
of Jesus, the voice of praise is irrepressible. 
Martyrs' cells, and beds of anguish, and hov- 
els of bitterest poverty have all been cheered 
with holy song. During the late war, the 
suffering soldiers in the hospital used to ease 
their pains by singing "How sweet the name 
of Jesus sounds," and "There'll be no sorrow 
there." 

It is related of a Christian officer at the 
battle of Shiloh, that he lay all night on the 
field, fatally wounded in both thighs. He 
said, "The stars shone out clear over all the 
dark battle-field, and I began to think about 



240 POINTED PAPERS. 

that great God who had given his Son to die 
for me, and that he was up above those glo- 
rious stars. I felt that I ought to praise 
him, even while wounded and on that bat- 
tle-ground. . I could not help singing that 
beautiful hymn 'When I can read my title 
clear.' There was a Christian brother in the 
brush near me. I could not see him ; but I 
could hear him. He took up the strain. 
Another beyond him heard it, and joined 
in, and still others too. We made the field 
of battle ring with the hymns of praise to 
God." 

Here is a beautiful thought for all the fol- 
lowers of King Jesus. Life is a battle with 
many a sharp encounter, many an agonizing 
wound, many a hard bivouac. But we can 
"make it ring" with the voice of serene and 
triumphant praise. We do not sing enough. 
Our hearts should oftener warm with the 
mercies and promises, and loving-kindnesses 
of our God, until the lips should break forth 
into singing. Earth is the believer's ante- 
chamber to heaven. Whatever else the re- 



god's singers. 241 

deemed may do in our Father's house, we 
know that they sing there the new song of 
Moses and the Lamb. Heaven is vocal with 
God's singers. Those anthems are born of a 
love that can not keep silent. And the 
purest and most perennial fountain of song on 
earth is a soul filled full with the presence of 
the Lord Jesus. Every forgiven, redeemed, 
heaven-bound heart should be a robin singing 
in the branches of the tree of life. While 
yonder bird's mouth is filled with music, he 
does no harm, even to a worm. And we 
verily believe that those hours in life in 
which we do the least sinning, are those we 
spend in singing to our God. 



A GOLDEN MOTTO FOR EVERY 
CHRISTIAN; 



r ~T 1 HE old Bible truths are the freshest, after 
-*- all. They have a perennial grandeur, 
like the Alps, at every new view of them ; 
they have a perennial sweetness, like that 
honey which is set before you every morn- 
ing on your Swiss mountain rambles. Many 
of these truths are condensed into portable 
mottoes that may be carried in every man's 
memory. I find one of these golden watch- 
words in the twelfth chapter of Isaiah: "/ 
will trust. 11 

No word is interwoven more closely in the 
warp and woof of the Old Testament than this 
word "trust." It is connected with the name 
of God no less than eighty-six times. In the 



A GOLDEN MOTTO FOR EVERY CHRISTIAN. 243 

New Testament the Greek verb which corre- 
sponds to it is "believe," and the Greek noun 
which corresponds to it is "faith." These vi- 
tal words occur more than an hundred times. 
There is no duty commended so often in 
God's Word as the duty of trusting; with 
none are linked more exceeding great and 
precious promises. 

This act of faith lies at the very threshold 
of the Christian life. When the penitent in- 
quirer cries out, What shall I do to be saved ? 
the one invariable answer is, Trust on the 
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. 
The seeker's first duty is to renounce his own 
sins and to trust the efficacy of Christ's blood 
to cleanse him, and to renounce his own 
strength, which is weakness, and to trust 
himself to the mighty arm of Jesus. I re- 
ceived a touching letter this week from one 
of the most wretched and apparently hope- 
less inebriates that I have ever known. He 
had fairly wallowed in drunkenness. He 
writes to me : " When I had become almost 
a wreck, both physically and mentally, and 



244 POINTED PAPERS. 

friends had pronounced my case hopeless, 
then it was that Jesus came to my rescue 
and I gave him my heart. That saved meP 
This man has been for six months living sober 
and cleanly and happy. When drowning in 
his shocking sin and shame he had made his 
last clutch on the outstretched arm of Jesus, 
and this trust brought him divine help. He 
might well close his humble and grateful note 
by saying: "If you have any one in your 
congregation who is addicted to the use of 
intoxicants, please say to him for me that 
nothing but the grace of God can save him." 
This reformed man will be safe just as long 
as his watchword is, I will trust ! The sci- 
entific skeptic laughs at the bare idea of 
such a divine interference with the physical 
phenomena of appetite and using strong 
drink ; but will the skeptic please to ac- 
count for the stubborn fad of my friend's 
conversion ? 

As trust in the sinner's Saviour lies at the 
starting-point of Christianity, so it is the key- 
note of the whole after Christian experience. 



A GOLDEN MOTTO FOR EVERY CHRISTIAN. 245 

The Christian life is a life of trust. As faith 
plays such an important part in human affairs 
from the babe who takes just what its mother 
gives it, on to the full-grown man who takes 
for his daily toil the Government's paper 
promises as money, so faith is the central 
idea of our holy religion. The laboring man 
never saw "the Government"; but he knows 
that behind it lie all the vast resources of the 
Great Republic. The believer never saw his 
God ; but he knows that in him are the re- 
sources of infinite wisdom and wealth and 
power and love. So he wisely says: I will 
trust ! 

This motto holds good for every decision 
we have to make and for every duty we 
have to perform: "Commit thy way unto the 
Lord ; trust also in him, and he will bring it 
to pass." This means what it says : give the 
Lord the direction of your steps. Paul, when 
he felt drawn to Rome as a witness for Jesus, 
did not trouble himself whether he went there 
as a passenger or as a prisoner in chains. 
This trust must be a continuous process — 



246 POINTED PAPERS. 

the daily habit of our lives. When the Lord 
is driving us, we must not be all the time 
grasping the reins. The tourist who goes 
up the Matterhorn must not tell the guide 
the route or what implements it is safe to 
carry. If lie is not willing to trust his guide, 
he had better stay at the base of the moun- 
tain. For there will come many an emer- 
gency in which nothing but that guide's 
steady brain and stout arm will lie between 
him and certain destruction. My brother 
climbers, before us rises the rugged up-hill 
of self-denial and of duty. At the summit 
are Heaven's flashing glories. Can you grasp 
a stiff hold on the loving hand of your Guide 
and say, even on the dizziest places : / will 
trust ? 

Remember that for what you entrust to 
God you and I are not responsible. What 
we leave to him belongs to him. He is our 
trustee. It is his "lookout" whether we fail 
or succeed. Paul was not responsible for the 
number of converts at Athens and Rome, nor 
whether there should be one solitary convert 



A GOLDEN MOTTO FOR EVERY CHRISTIAN. 247 

to the truth. He had but to preach faith- 
fully and to live righteously and leave results 
with his Master. All that I am responsible 
for is the honest employment of my faculties 
and my opportunities. God must look out 
for the rest. The Bible that lies on my pul- 
pit bears the motto "I will trust." 

When four rowers are in a boat, with their 
backs toward the bow, their simple office is 
to pull the oars. The steersman's office is to 
look ahead and work the helm. The moment 
that the rower turns steersman and tries to 
look over his shoulder or outpull his fellow 
oarsman the boat loses headway. So you and 
I are placed with our backs to the future. In 
our hands are the oars of Christian endeav- 
or. Let God steer the boat and let us attend 
to the oars. The sweetest thought to every 
true believer is this: my Master is at the 
helm. He knoweth the way that I take. 
My times are in his hand. It is not in me 
to direct my steps. His grace is sufficient for 
me. I will trust. 

Here is a golden motto for the walls of our 



248 POINTED PAPERS. 

prayer-rooms. The first duty when we come 
to the mercy-seat is to believe that God is, 
and that he is a rewarder of them that 
diligently seek him. We must not always 
expect immediate answers ; nor always just 
such answers as we most desire. Lodge your 
prayer in the bosom of Jesus, and then go 
away composedly, saying to yourself: "I will 
trust." How many a poor, troubled Christian 
comes to the prayer-meeting with a perfect 
backload of cares and fears and desires and 
worries, and then carries them all away again. 
He has not learned to cast his cares on God. 
If he comes to Jesus, it is very much in the 
same temper that the disciples did when they 
shook up their sleeping Master in the storm 
and cried: "Carest thou not, Lord, that we 
perish?" His answer to such panic-stricken 
followers is: "0 ye of little faith; wherefore 
do ye doubt?" 

There is another place to hang up this 
golden motto. It is on the walls of a sick- 
chamber. Friend, let me put it up at the 
foot of thy bed, in full view of thine eyes 



A GOLDEN MOTTO FOR EVERY CHRISTIAN. 249 

when thouwakest: "I will trust." Look at 
it ; no medicine can do thee so much good. 
Feed on it ; there is strength in it and mar- 
row to thy bones. If you are restless, put it 
under your pillow and go to sleep on it. Get 
some one to read to you the fourteenth chap- 
ter of John. It will help you to get well; 
and if you are not to recover, it will help 
you to get ready to leave your bed and go 
into the open door of your Father's house in 
glory. 

In the abode of poverty, this is a welcome 
text to write up on the scanty walls. It will 
shine there like a lamp. When the barrel 
runs low and the cruse is getting empty, then 
is the time to trust. If God has given his 
dear Son to die for your soul, do not think 
it presumptuous to trust him for your daily 
bread. This text will breed patience and 
cheerfulness. Nail it to the wall. 

And so for every emergency in life here 
is a watchword for every Christian. When 
temptation assails, trust. What time you 
are afraid, trust. My daily life is a march 



250 POINTED PAPERS. 



into an unknown future and I can not see 
an arm's length ahead. 



So I go onward, not knowing ; 

I would not if I might; 
I would rather walk in the dark with God 

Than walk alone in the light ; 
I would rather walk with him by faith 

Than walk alone by sight." 



THE HANDS OF CHRIST. 



/^vUR Divine Jesus becomes vastly nearer 
^-^ to us and dearer, too, when we think 
of him as a fellow-man. He was made like 
unto his brethren. This is the great mystery 
of godliness : but none the less true because 
it is too deep for our fathom-lines. He be- 
came actual flesh and blood, and his baby-lips 
drew milk from a mother's breast. His feet 
trod the rough roads of Galilee, and his weary 
head was laid on the hard plank of the fish- 
ing-boat when he dropped asleep. His eyes 
looked upon guilty Jerusalem until the tears 
came, and looked upon guilty Peter, too, un- 
til his tears came. His hands were ever busy, 
from the time when they handled the axe and 
saw in Nazareth until they were pierced with 
the ragged nails on Calvary. Of these hands 



252 POINTED PAPERS. 

we read very often, and there are some pre- 
cious lessons which they hold out to all his 
disciples to the end of time. 

(1.) They were working hands. In the 
Songs of Solomon they are poetically de- 
scribed as like "gold rings set with the 
beryl " • but they were actually the rough- 
ened hands which drove the chisel and swung 
the axe. What a divine dignity our Lord puts 
upon honest toil ; and what a silent, sting- 
ing rebuke upon the upstart insolence which 
counts manual labor a menial degradation. 
In all God's universe there is no room for 
that moral monster, an idle man. "My Fa- 
ther worketh hitherto and I work." It was a 
steady industry with Jesus that accomplished 
in a short three years such an amount of 
travel and preaching and healing of the dis- 
eased. Of all he said and did only a small 
portion has been recorded. What a sweep 
of work those hands performed — from lifting 
a corpse into life and touching a leper into 
health down to the lowly office of washing 
the feet of eleven poor sinners. 



THE HANDS OF CHRIST. 253 

(2.) A very beautiful office was performed 
by our Master when he took a group of chil- 
dren up into his arms and "laid his hands 
upon them 7 ' and blessed them. What virtue 
went out of that holy touch into those young 
hearts we can not tell. We have often 
longed to know how those children turned 
out in after life and what gifts that divine 
benediction brought them. Tradition says 
that the brave martyr Ignatius was one of 
the little fellows who sat on the lap of Jesus 
and felt the pressure of the almighty hand. 
Precious Saviour ! come in spirit and lay thy 
strong, gentle grasp of love on our dear boys 
and girls and keep these our lambs from the 
fangs of the wolf. It is a grievous sin that 
we fathers and mothers do not with actual 
faith bring our children to Jesus, that he may 
lay upon them that mighty influence which 
alone can keep them from the Devil's clutch. 
Either Jesus or Satan must have our children. 
Upon us parents too often hangs the deciding 
vote. A large portion of Christ's miracles 
of love were wrought at the urgent request 



254 POINTED PAPERS. 

of parents for their suffering children. Is 
that ear gone deaf to-day? Will he not do 
for our children's souls what he did for the 
bodies of the ruler's daughter and the dead 
youth at Nain? 

(3.) What power too was there in the hold 
of Jesus's hands. One strong grasp lifts the 
sinking Peter out of the depths. So my dear 
Lord caught me when I was sinking toward 
Hell by the gravitation of my own guilt. So 
has he often lifted me out of trouble when 
the waves were ready to strangle me. The 
tighter I clung the safer I felt. At the mo- 
ment when I let my whole weight hang upon 
his arm the responsibility for my salvation 
passed up from me to the Omnipotent Jesus. 
The assurance of my ever reaching Heaven 
hangs upon this golden promise: "None shall 
ever pluck them out of my hands." Observe 
that this does not say that I may never play 
the fool and wickedly slip away into abom- 
inable backsliding. It does not say that I 
may not pettishly push away that hand when 
it is correcting me, or strike it when it is 



THE HANDS OF CHRIST. 255 

giving me bitter medicine. It does mean 
that while I remain in Jesus's hands, true 
and humble and faithful to him, all the 
devils of the pit can not wrest me out of 
that grasp of love. 

"Lord! I would clasp thy hand in mine, 
Nor ever murmur or repine ; 
Content, whatever lot I see, 
Since 'tis thy hand that holdeth me." 

There is one precious promise suggested just 
here which we often misquote. Our Lord's 
assurance is: "Behold! I have graven thee 
upon the palms of my hands." He does not 
say that our names only are written there. 
We are there — our persons, our case, our 
wants, our works, aud every thing that con- 
cerns us. Jesus has taken us into his hands. 
Can I forget what I have graven upon my 
palms ? Neither can our Master forget us 
or forsake us. Where the hands go, I go. 
Nor will he lose his hold until he leads me 
to the everlasting fountains of water in glory. 
(4.) Those hands which thus hold me were 



256 POINTED PAPERS. 

pierced for my redemption. The prints of 
the nails are there. Those wounded hands 
bore my guilt in the hour of atonement. Out 
of them flowed the atoning blood. He bids 
me ''reach thither my fingers and behold that 
hand, and be not faithless but believing." It 
is the Jesus of Calvary that saves me. Nor 
does his work end with the sacrifice he made 
for us on the cross. Paul tells us in that 
magnificent eighth chapter to the Romans 
that "it is Christ that died — yea, is risen 
again ; who is at the right hand of God and 
maketh intercession for us." There he stands 
as our Advocate. He lifts up his hands for 
us. He pleads our cause. Like the wounded 
Roman hero who came before the Senate and 
held up the stumps of his arms in mute ap- 
peal for an imprisoned brother, and gained 
his suit, so our Elder Brother pleads for us 
with the pierced hands that bled on the 
cross. 

These are a few of the thousand sweet and 
strengthening lessons which the hands of our 
Divine Redeemer bring to us. Let us kiss 



THE HANDS OF CHRIST. 257 

them with reverent love. Let us lay our- 
selves within them. Let us dismiss all cow- 
ard fears and devilish doubts while "his left 
hand is under our heads and his right hand 
doth embrace us. 7 ' 



UPS AND DOWNS. 



"T X 7*E do not begrudge the ten long solid 
^ * chapters in our Bible that are devo- 
ted mainly to the delightful biography of Jo- 
seph. They are probably the best-thumbed 
chapters by boys and girls in the whole 
Word ; they ought to be carefully studied 
and pondered by every young man who is 
laying out his plans for life. No person in 
history, secular or sacred, ever experienced 
more of the Tips and Downs of life than he 
did. The contrast between Napoleon an ar- 
tillery lieutenant, and Napoleon the dictator 
to Europe — the contrast between Lincoln on 
a Mississippi flatboat, and Lincoln in the Pres- 
idential chair — is not sharper than between 
the Hebrew youth in the pit and in the pris- 



UPS AND DOWNS. 259 

on, and that same Hebrew riding in the sec- 
ond chariot of Pharaoh's haughty empire. 

The prison was really his training-school 
for the palace. He filled the humbler sphere 
so full with his integrity and his trustworthi- 
ness, that he overflowed into the larger sphere 
of the Premiership. This is a most important 
truth for every young man who has any laud- 
able ambition. Many a clerk complains that 
he does not get a better place or a bigger sal- 
ary ; but he does not stop to think whether 
he has really earned a promotion. Many a 
restless minister chafes under the fancied hu- 
miliation of hiding his light under the bushel 
of some obscure parish. Good brother ! when 
your light grows big enough to burn up the 
bushel, there is no fear but what the people 
of a larger parish will discover the flame, and 
will promote it to their taller and more con- 
spicuous candlestick. If the Presbyterians of 
Edinburgh had not observed a very bright 
light shining away off in the little hamlet of 
Arbirlot, they never would have called Dr. 
Guthrie to the fastidious capital of Scotland. 



260 POINTED PAPERS. 

The only legitimate way to get into a larger 
place, is to overflow the smaller one. The 
egregious folly of many of the "strikers" last 
summer, consisted in this, that if they could 
not get the bigger loaf they demanded, they 
would not touch the lesser loaf that was of- 
fered them, and very soon they had no loaf at 
all. There are thousands of just such fools in 
every department of life, who "strike" for 
something which they have not fairly earned, 
and discover at last that they have only 
struck themselves — dead. 

Another capital lesson is taught us by that 
level-headed and godly young man who be- 
haved equally well in a prison and in a pal- 
ace. He understood the difference between 
submitting and surrendering. They are as far 
apart as the Arctic and the Antarctic. When 
Joseph was in the penitentiary through a 
heinous injustice, he submitted to his hard 
lot gracefully. Instead of gnashing his teeth 
in impotent desperation, he just went about 
his daily tasks with a most cheerful temper. 
He must have been a streak of sunshine 



UPS AND DOWNS. 261 

within those gloomy walls. He could sub- 
mit to what was inevitable, but he never 
surrendered. 

My brave Brother A submits to a 

small parish and a stingy salary, but he does 
not give up and growl. In whatsoever place 
God puts him, he has made up his mind to 
be content. My young friend Goodgold lost 
his situation when the bank that employed 
him failed, and left his little family on low 
rations. But Goodgold submitted to the 
humble position of a porter in a warehouse, 
rather than to loaf about the streets, sulk- 
ing. He could go down, but he would not 
'• give up the ship." My excellent sister in 
Christ, Mrs. Sunnysoul, has lost her health, 
as well as most of her property. A visit to 
her sick-room always tones up my faith in 
the power of God's grace to give " songs in 
the night." She is perfectly submissive to 
her trying lot; but so far from surrendering 
her confidence, and her crown, she is abso- 
lutely one of the happiest disciples I ever 
knew. Cast down, she is not destroyed; 



262 POINTED PAPERS. 

though sorrowful, she is always rejoicing. 
She can submit, but she never surrenders. 

We very much doubt if it would be safe 
for us always to be "up" in the world. It 
is a wholesome process to be "taken down" 
occasionally. The grass in our door-yards 
has a tendency to grow rank, and it requires 
to be taken down by a mower. The yard 
never looks so well as after the sharp cutter 
has gone over it. Many a true Christian 
never appears so attractive in his graces as 
when God's mowing-machine has gone over 
him. His self-confidence, or his growing love 
of the world, or his sinful ambitions, needed 
the scythe. Even Paul himself would not 
have grown up so thick and even, and strong 
from the roots, if he had not been mowed 
pretty often. The best trees in the orchard 
need trimming. 

Sometimes we get up into a position that 
is dangerous to godliness, and then a "taking 
down " is a blessing. It is just a possible 
thing that the Lord saw what a dangerous 
place for Joseph that luxurious house of Pot- 



UPS AND DOWNS. 263 

iphar was ; so he took him down into a pris- 
on. I suspect that God discovered what peril 
Paul was in of becoming "exalted beyond 
measure "; so he took him down with some 
thorn in the flesh that must have pricked the 
balloon of self-conceit. There is not a spir- 
itual biography in all of Christ's universal 
Church, in all ages, but presents a constant 
alternation of Ups and Downs. When a 
Christian is carrying too many topsails, God 
is very apt to send a gale which strips off the 
canvas. "He that exalteth himself shall be 
abased "is as true of the Christian as it is of 
the worldling. But when a chastened soul 
lies very low before God, how sweet it is to 
hear him whisper in the ear of faith, "Whoso 
humbleth himself shall be exalted " ! 



FEAR NOT; ONLY TRUST! 



HPOWARD the close of one of the busiest 
■*■ days which our Lord spent upon earth 
he was sitting at meat in the house of his 
disciple Matthew. The crowd of Capernaum- 
ites, who had awaited his landing from the 
opposite shore of the lake, had followed up 
to Matthew's house and seem to have lin- 
gered about the doors while he was at din- 
ner. Presently a ruler of the synagogue en- 
ters the dining-room in great distress, and, 
throwing himself down at Jesus's feet, sobs 
out the words: "Come right to my house. 
My daughter is dying." 

Sorrow sent him to Jesus. It is very prob- 
able that more than one who reads these lines 
was first led to him from the same motive. 
It required just that shock to your slumber- 



FEAR NOT; ONLY TRUST ! 265 

ing heart to arouse you and to make you feel 
your need of a Divine Friend. The best of- 
fice which severe trouble can perform for us 
is to send us to Jesus. Blessed be that blow 
which startles us into calling on Christ. 

The Master rises from the table instantly 
and accompanies Jairus toward his dwelling. 
There is a touch of pathos in the word 
"only.' 7 The dying child is an only daugh- 
ter ; the one light of his home is flickering 
in the socket. That one precious life hangs 
entirely upon a word from that nrysterious 
Rabbi, whom he is following along with anx- 
ious heart. Presently the crowd halts. Je- 
sus has felt a touch upon the fringe of his 
robe, as it laid over his shoulder. It was not 
the bottom of his robe that was grasped by 
some one bowing to the ground amid the jost- 
ling throng. But, slipping up slyly behind 
him, a wretched woman — half-dead with a 
loathsome hemorrhage — had just touched the 
sacred tassel or fringe that hung upon Christ's 
shoulder. "Who touched me?" Quick-spo- 
ken Peter half rebukes him by telling him 



266 POINTED PAPERS. 

that the whole crowd are surging up against 
him, and the question is preposterous. The 
eye of Jesus soon falls upon the poor woman 
whose faith has just stolen a blessing. She 
drops at his feet and confesses that her trust 
in his power was so great that she only 
touched his robe in order to be cured. 

In the mean time Jairus is standing still and 
waiting for the conversation to be ended. It 
may be that his fatherly anxiety was getting 
very impatient. But it was a happy halt for 
him. He witnessed the miracle of healing. 
He heard the sweet words spoken to the 
frightened woman: "Daughter, thy faith hath 
made thee whole. Go in peace.' 7 Here was 
a lesson to strengthen his own faith. There 
is a lesson for us too in that incident of our 
Lord's stopping on his way to perform one 
good deed in order to perform another act 
of love. Many Christians are so wrapped up 
in one or two favorite schemes of benevo- 
lence, which become their " hobbies," that 
they have no time or thought for cases of 
suffering close by them. 



FEAR NOT; ONLY TRUST ! 267 



Jesus was never idle ; neither was he ever 
in a hurry. He could afford to let that dying 
girl breathe her last, while he halted to do 
a kindness to the sad woman who had been 
bleeding for twelve years. 

Up comes a messenger with fatal tidings. 
He brings the hard fact to Jairus : "Thy 
daughter is dead." And then he adds the 
unfeeling advice: " Don't bother the Master." 
This homely English word expresses exactly 
what the cast-iron man said to the broken- 
hearted father. There are just such people 
in the world now. They smite you with bad 
news as with a javelin, and then follow the 
blow with the hackneyed stoicism: "There's 
no use in worrying over it." The child was 
dead. Why need the poor father ask Jesus 
to go another step? 

Just at this point comes in that coincidence 
between the trouble of Jairus and the spir- 
itual troubles that beset our souls oft and 
again. Here comes in the coincidence be- 
tween that father's utter helplessness and dis- 
tress and those very same feelings in the 



268 POINTED PAPERS. 

breast of many an anxious seeker for salva- 
tion. The soul is tormented with a sense of 
guilt and feels utterly helpless to relieve itself. 
The hard fact of guilt and weakness and lia- 
bility to perish stares him in the face. Un- 
belief croaks in his ear: " Why bother your- 
self any longer about religion ? Why worry 
God with bootless prayers ? " 

And here, too, come in those wonderful 
words of our dear Master, which have rung 
like a heavenly bell in the ears of so many 
a troubled, anxious sinner. I am thankful 
that the messenger blurted out that blunt 
message to Jairus. For our Lord overheard 
it and pronounced those precious words to 
the sorrowing father: " Fear not; only trust!" 
It is a pity that our version does not trans- 
late the Greek word into the better word 
"trust," instead of the more vague one "be- 
lieve." What Jesus bade that father do was 
to trust the dead darling to him, and "she 
shall be made whole." We can imagine the 
ruler as walking the rest of the way with 
steady step and quiet tongue. Fear may 



FEAR NOT; ONLY TRUST ! 269 

have whispered: "What if he can not do it? 
It is too good to be true." Bat faith replies : 
"All things are possible with him. He has 
just cured a woman's twelve years 7 sickness 
in an instant." So he goes calmly along to 
the house of death, and calmly up into the 
chamber where the little corpse is lying. 
And when Jesus touches the dead hand and 
exclaims "Talitha cumi!" behold! his faith is 
swallowed up in sight ! 

This is a wonderful scene and one of the 
most inspiring, instructive, and comforting in 
the whole Book of Divine Love. Those words 
spoken by Christ to Jairus have been a gold- 
en counsel to millions of- inquiring souls and 
a golden comfort to millions of afflicted saints. 
Fear not ; only trust ! The one brings tor- 
ment ; the other brings peace. Doubt always 
disquiets. Trust calms the troubled heart 
as Christ's omnipotent voice calmed Galilee's 
tempest into smooth, unruffled silence. Doubt 
cripples all exertion. A doubting inquirer 
is not ready either to pray as he ought or to 
obey as he ought. Faith prompts to pray for 



270 POINTED PAPERS. 

help, and then to do what Jesus bids. Doubt 
dishonors Christ ; insults him. Trust takes 
him at his word and believes that he can save 
a soul already dead in trespasses and sin. "I 
found I had nothing to do but trust him/ 7 said 
an intelligent convert to her pastor, after 
many weeks of distress had ended in serene 
peace. And these words — "Fear not; only 
trust' 7 — were the manna which we gave to a 
dying friend last week. He said that they 
prepared him to feel "safe in the arms of 
Jesus." 

Kind reader, you and I have some hard 
climbing to do before we reach the top. We 
must imitate Alpine climbers and keep strong 
hold of the Guide. Let us take short views. 
If we look over the precipices, we shall 
grow dizzy. If we look too far ahead, we 
shall grow discouraged. Let us rather put 
our weak hands into Christ's strong, loving 
grasp, and all the time listen to his cheering 
words: " Fear not; only trust 1" 



THE EVERLASTING ARMS. 



/""\NE of the sweetest passages in the Bi- 
^^ ble is this one — "Underneath are the 
everlasting arms." It is not often preached 
from ; perhaps because it is felt to be so 
much richer and more touching than any 
thing we ministers can say about it. But 
what a vivid idea it gives of the divine sup- 
port ! The first idea of infancy is of resting 
in arms which maternal love never allows to 
become weary. Sick-room experiences con- 
firm the impression when we have seen a 
feeble mother or sister lifted from the bed of 
pain by the stronger ones of the household. 
In the case of our Heavenly Father the arms 
are felt, but not seen. The invisible secret 
support comes to the soul in its hours of 



272 POINTED PAPERS. 

weakness or trouble ; for God knoweth our 
feebleness, he remembers that we are but 
dust. 

We often sink very low under the weight 
of sorrows. Sudden disappointments can car- 
ry us, in an hour, from the heights down to 
the very depths. Props that we leaned upon 
are stricken away. What God means by it 
very often, is just to bring us down to "the 
everlasting arms " ! We did not feel our 
need of them before. We were " making 
flesh our arm," and relying on human com- 
forts or resources. When my little boy 
dashes off to his play, brimful of glee, he does 
not stop to think much about his parents ; 
but let him be taken suddenly sick, or an 
accident befall him, his first thought is to 
go to his mother. God often lays his hand 
heavily upon us to remind us that we have 

got a Father. When my neighbor A 

broke in business, and twenty-four hours 

made him a bankrupt, he came home, sa} r - 

• ing to himself, "Well, my money is gone, 

but Jesus is left. 7 ' He did not merely come 



THE EVERLASTING ARMS. 273 

down to "hardpan," he came to something 

far more solid — to the everlasting arms. 

When another friend laid her beautiful boy 

in his coffin, after the scarlet fever had done 

its worst, she laid her own sorrowful heart 

upon the everlasting arms. The dear little 

sleeper was there already. The Shepherd 

had his lamb. 

There is something about deep sorrow that 

tends to wake up the child-feeling in all of 

us. A man of giant intellect becomes like a 

little child, when a great grief smites him or 

when a grave opens beneath his bedroom or 

his fireside. I have seen a stout sailor — who 

laughed at the tempest — come home when he 

was sick, and let his old mother nurse him 

as if he were a baby. He was willing to 

lean on the arms that had never failed him. 

So a Christian in the time of trouble, is 

brought to his child-feeling. He wants to 

lean somewhere, to talk to somebody, to have 

somebody love him and hold him up. His 

extremity becomes God's opportunity. Then 

his humbled, broken spirit cries out 
18 



274 POINTED PAPERS. 

" Oh ! Lord, a little helpless child 
Comes to thee this day for rest; 
Take me, fold me in thy arms, 
Hold my head upon thy breast." 

One great purpose in all affliction is to bring 
us down to the everlasting arms. What new 
strength and peace it gives us to feel them 
underneath us. We know that far as we may 
have sunk, we can not go any farther. Those 
mighty arms can not only hold us, they can 
lift us up. They can carry us along. Faith, 
in its essence, is simply a resting on the ever- 
lasting arms. It is trusting them, and not 
our own weakness. The sublime act of Je- 
sus as our Redeemer was to descend to the 
lowest depths of human depravity and guilt, 
and to bring up his redeemed ones from that 
horrible pit in his loving arms. Faith is 
just the clinging to those arms, and nothing 
more. 

This first lesson in conversion is to be prac- 
ticed and repeated all through the subsequent 
Christian life. To endeavor to lift our own 
souls by our own strength, is as absurd as to 



THE EVERLASTING ARMS. 275 

attempt to lift our bodies by grasping hold 
of our own clothes. The lift must come from 
God. Faith cries out, "Oh, my Lord, thou 
hast a mighty .arm ; hold me up ! " The re- 
sponse from heaven is, " I have found thee; 
mine arm shall strengthen thee ; on my arm 
shalt thou trust.' 7 

Here lies the very core of the doctrine of 
"Assurance." It simply means that I can 
feel, and every Christian believer can feel, 
perfectly sure that the everlasting arms will 
never break, and never fail us. I am not so 
sure that in some moment of waywardness, or 
pride, or self-sufficiency, I may not forsake 
those arms, and trust to my own wretched 
weakness. Then the curse which God has 
pronounced on those who depart from him 
and "make flesh their arm," is certain to 
come upon me. I learn from bitter expe- 
rience what a pitiable object even a Christian 
can be, when he has forsaken the living foun- 
tain, and has nothing left but his own broken 
cistern. God's Word is full of precious en- 
couragement to faith ; but it contains terrible 



276 POINTED PAPERS. 

warnings to presumption and self-confidence. 
And while presumption is swinging on its 
spider's web over the perilous precipice, faith 
calmly says — 

"All my trust on Thee is stayed, 
All my help from Thee I bring." 

While unbelief is floundering through the 
darkness, or sinking in the waves of de- 
spair, faith triumphantly sings — 

"Safe in the arms of Jesus, 
Safe on his gentle breast, 
Here by his love o'ershadowed 
Sweetly my soul doth rest." 

This is the theology for times of tempta- 
tion. Such times are sure to come. They 
are the testing processes. A late Sunday's 
equinoctial gale tested every tree in the for- 
est; only the rotten ones came down. When 
we read or hear how some professed Chris- 
tian has turned defaulter, or lapsed into 
drunkenness, or slipped from the commun- 
ion-table into open disgrace, it simply means 
that a human arm has broken. The man 



THE EVERLASTING ARMS. 277 

had forsaken the everlasting arms. David 
did it once, and fell. Daniel did not do it, 
and he stood. "The Lord knoweth how to 
deliver the godly out of temptations." 

This is a precious theology — this theology 
of trust — for the sick-room. We called in 
this week to visit one of Christ's suffering 
flock. We talked for a time about the or- 
dinary consolations for such cases as hers. 
Presently we said, "There is a sweet text 
that has been running in our mind for days 
past ; it is this, ' Underneath are the everlasting 
arms. 1 ' The tears came in a moment. That 
precious passage went to the right spot. It 
did good like a medicine. And our suffering 
friend laid more comfortably on that bed of 
pain from feeling that underneath her were 
the everlasting arms. Reader! may they be 
under thy head in the dying hour! 



A LIFT FOR THE OVERLOADED. 



nnHIS world is full of overloaded people. 
■*■ Some are oppressed with pecuniary anx- 
ieties; their incomes have fallen below their 
outgoes, or their investments have taken to 
themselves wings. Some are burdened with 
solicitude for loved ones who are sick, and 
still more with painful griefs over the way- 
ward and the wandering. A grievous bur- 
den of spiritual despondency weighs down 
another ; and still another is intensely anx- 
ious for the unconverted of his parish, or his 
Sunday-school class. God only knoweth how 
many of his children are overloaded, and 
what maimer of loads they are carrying. 
Each one thinks his burden is the biggest. 
"Don't talk to me about your troubles," 
says the poor brother to the rich one. "You 



A LIFT FOR THE OVERLOADED. 279 

never know what it is to be without a dol- 
lar to pay your rent, or to foot the bill of 
your sick wife's physician and medicines.'' 7 
"Ah," replies the other, "I could bear pov- 
erty if I only had my health again/ 7 — or, "I 
could endure any thing if my poor wander- 
ing boy were restored to me and to my Sa- 
viour." And so each troubled man or wo- 
man goes on, unburdening his mind to some 
other, without getting one atom of relief. 

Why, in the name of common sense and 
Christianity, do they not really unburthen 
themselves in very deed, by rolling off the 
crushing load? Where? On whom? Here 
is the answer, in this golden line, "Cast thy 
burthen upon the Lord and he shall sustain 
thee." There is a twin-passage to this in 
the New Testament, which is, if possible, still 
more precious. Peter wrote it, but the Holy 
Spirit gave it to him. "Casting all your care 
upon him, for he careth for you." 

The word "care" in this passage does not 
describe a wise forethought for the future, 
or the proper solicitudes of affection. The 



280 POINTED PAPERS. 

Greek word signifies anxiety. It is about 
equivalent to our homely word "worry." Roll 
your load of worries over upon God ! The 
reason given is exceedingly touching. "For 
he takes an interest in you." There is a still 
sweeter translation of this line. It is this, 
"For he has you on his heart." Beautiful 
thought — blessed thought! The infinite God 
of the universe has poor frail diminutive me 
on his heart! My big load is less than a 
feather's weight to him. He can carry it and 
me besides, and a myriad more such weak- 
lings also. Like as a father pitieth his chil- 
dren, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. 
He remembers that we are but dust. 

We are playing with our little three-year- 
old on the sea-beach, and the young naturalist 
has crammed his pockets and filled his apron 
with shells, and sea-washed stones. We offer 
to take them ; but the youngster is afraid to 
lose them, and insists on lugging the load. 
By and by he gives out, and we just shoulder 
him up and while his head lies sleeping on 
our neck, we slip his treasures into our pock- 



A LIFT FOR THE OVERLOADED. 281 

ets. His first cry wjien he wakes is, "Papa, 
I have lost all my pretty shells!" "No! my 
boy! the load was too heavy for you. It 
tired you out. Here are your shells and the 
bright stones. Papa has kept them all for 
you." That boy has got one of his first les- 
sons in faith. 

Now just what I do for my wee weak- 
ling who can not carry his load, my blessed 
heavenly Father offers to do for me. He 
says to me, "Give me your burden." The 
Almighty Ruler of the Universe, who is wise 
in counsel and wonderful in working ; the God 
who piloted Noah and all his precious freight • 
who sent his messenger-birds to Elijah by the 
brookside ; who quieted Daniel among the 
ravening beasts, and calmed Paul in the 
raging storm, he says to me, "Roll your 
anxieties over on me. I have you on my 
heart." But practically our answer to this 
loving offer of our God is, "No! we won't 
trust it to any one. It is our own trouble ; 
nobody can carry it but ourselves." What 
fools ! 



282 POINTED PAPERS. 

Just imagine a weary, foot-sore traveller, 
tugging along with his pack on a hot sum- 
mer day. A wagon comes up, and the kind- 
hearted owner calls out, "Friend! you look 
tired. Toss that pack into my wagon. I 
am going your way." But the wayfarer 
eyeing him suspiciously, mutters to himself, 
"He wants to steal it"; or else obstinately 
replies, "I am obliged to you, sir, but I can 
carry my own luggage." We laugh at the 
preposterous folly of this obstinate fellow, 
and then repeat the same insane sin against 
our loving Lord. Oh ! fools, and slow of 
heart to believe ! 

For this is just the clearest exercise of 
faith. When God says to us, Give me your 
load, trust me, what you can not do, I will 
do for you, he puts our faith to one of the 
strongest tests. He never consents to carry 
our burdens unless we give them to him. 
Jesus never agrees to bear the sinner's sins 
until the sinner has repented and has ac- 
cepted him gladly as the burden -bearer. 
God's offer is to lighten our loads by putting 



A LIFT FOR THE OVERLOADED. 283 

himself, as it were, into our hearts, and under 
the load. He then becomes our strength — a 
strength equal to the day. This is a super- 
natural work. This is what is meant by 
11 grace sufficient." This is the result of an 
indwelling Christ. He puts his right arm 
beneath us. 

This blessed trust brings inward quietness. 
The more entirely and simply and implicitly 
we trust, the more we rest. As the baby 
drops over upon mother's bosom into sweet 
repose, so God giveth his beloved sleep. Not 
sleep from work ; but sleep from worry. 

Work is strengthening. But worry frets 
and fevers us. It chafes our devotions. Like 
to ague-fever it consumes our strength. Paul 
the giant worker, who laid the foundation of 
Christ's kingdom from Jerusalem to Rome, 
and who had "the care of all the churches" 
in his loving heart, never seems to have 
chafed himself with a moment's worry. He 
warned sinners night and day with tears, but 
they were such tears of pity as Jesus shed. 
" Be anxious for nothing, brethren ! " was his 



284 POINTED PAPERS. 

calm counsel to the comrades of his glorious 
struggle. He was doing God's work, and he 
knew that God would take care of him until 
that work was finished. He knew whom he 
had believed, and whom he was serving, and 
cared not whether duty led him to a palace 
or a prison. He evidently held that doubt 
and vexation and worry are sins, and are as 
thoroughly to be resisted as any other temp- 
tations of the Devil. 

And now if my blessed Master has my 
poor work — my parish, my household, or my 
Sabbath class — upon his divine heart, why 
should I worry? If Christ is at the helm, 
why should I be running about the deck in 
distress, lest the vessel sink ? If God lets you 
and me labor for him in vain, it is his loss 
more than ours. Duty belongs to us ; results 
belong to him. Then let us work — and wait 
— and trust — a,nd leave our loads with Jesus. 

The Princess Elizabeth, of England, was 
found dead, with her head resting on her Bi- 
ble, open at these words, "Come unto me, 
all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give 



A LIFT FOR THE OVERLOADED. 285 

you rest.'' So may we fall asleep at last 
when the day's work for Jesus is over, and 
wake up in heaven to find ourselves in the 
delicious rest that remaineth for the people 
of God! 



GOD'S KINDNESS TO THE CRIPPLED. 



/""\NE of the most tender and attractive 
^-^ episodes in the career of David the 
King is found in the ninth chapter of the 
second historic book of Samuel. The incident 
is beautiful in itself and it illustrates several 
spiritual truths like a parable. 

David is fairly established on the throne 
and under a warm sunshine of prosperity. 
The Ark has been brought home to the royal 
city. The ruddy shepherd-boy of Bethlehem 
has waxed strong. He is reigning over all 
Israel and executing justice among all his 
people. But one day, while thinking of his 
beloved comrade of former times, he inquires 
whether any of the house of Saul is yet liv- 
ing, for he wishes to show him kindness, for 



god's kindness to the crippled. 287 

Jonathan's sake. Ishbosheth, the weak pre- 
tender to the throne, had been put out of the 
way, and it seems doubtful if a single survivor 
of the hateful dynasty of Saul yet remains. 
But an old family steward, named Ziba, when 
called into the royal presence, reports that 
there is a son of Jonathan yet living, who is 
"lame on his feet." This is about the only 
fact known about the poor waif of dethroned 
royalty. He is a cripple. Ever since his 
nurse had fled from the house at the tidings 
of Jonathan's bloody death, and had dropped 
the little five-year-old, in her panic, he had 
been incurably lame on both his feet. And 
so he had been sheltered as a sort of ' ' Tiny 
Tim" in the house of one Machir, beyond the 
river Jordan. It was not far from the spot 
where the revolt of Ishbosheth had been 
ended by the assassin's knife. The region 
had swarmed with sedition. 

As soon as David learns that a child of his 
bosom friend is yet in the land of the living, 
he remembers that he had once made a cove- 
nant with Jonathan to "shew the kindness 



288 POINTED PAPERS. 

of the Lord " to his house forever. The only 
reparation he can make for his long forge t- 
fulness is to send the royal chariot speedily to 
Lodebar, with orders to bring Mephibosheth 
up to court. As the poor, abashed cripple 
hobbles into the king's presence-chamber he 
is perfect]}^ overwhelmed. He falls on his 
face and exclaims: "What is thy servant, 
that thou shouldst look upon such a dead 
dog as I am ? " Mephibosheth was probably 
a shy and gentle creature, like many others 
who suffer from bodily infirmity ; but there is 
nothing which so soon lays one flat on the 
face as a volley of unexpected kindness. No 
artillery kills an enemy like love. If Me- 
phibosheth had been taught to regard David 
as the destroyer of the dynasty of Saul, all 
his prejudice must have melted at once when 
the monarch receives him so graciously. Not 
only receives him, but adopts him, "for Jon- 
athan's sake," into the royal household ! He 
sits at the king's board every day and "finds 
a royal table a good hiding-place for lame 
legs." In that wild age of war and violence, 



god's kindness to the crippled. 289 

when revenge was too often accounted a vir- 
tue, this little cabinet picture of the poor 
cripple seated at the imperial banquets has 
all the lineaments of the New Testament 
Gospel in it. In fact, as our readers have 
followed the story through, they must have 
recognized the most striking features of the 
divine mercy to crippled souls. 

Every sinner lives in a rebellious region, 
further away from God than Lodebar was 
from Hebron. Every one of us was lamed 
by a fall, and impotent to restore ourselves. 
I was a moral Mephibosheth, and so is every 
one while under that "estate of sin and mis- 
ery into which man fell." Our whole nature 
corrupted by our forefather's sin and the ac- 
tual transgressions superadded by ourselves 
made us "lame of both feet." It was a sorry 
picture of himself which Mephibosheth drew 
when he styled himself "a dead dog"; but 
many an awakened sinner has had the same 
estimate of his own unworthiness. Ruther- 
ford describes himself, in the same impas- 
sioned language, as having once been "a dead 
19 



290 POINTED PAPERS. 

carcass, not able to step over a straw." Bun- 
yan used equally strong expressions of self- 
abhorrence ; and those who have ever read 
Charles G. Finney's " Autobiography " will 
mark how intensely he felt his guilt before 
God. I do not believe that any man can 
fully appreciate the merc}^ of God in Jesus 
Christ and the precious timeliness of atoning 
love to himself until he was thoroughly 
"broken down" in penitent self-abasement. 
The strongest men and women in God's host 
have once been repentant cripples, confessing 
not the misfortune of an inherited weakness, 
but their own personal iniquity and shameful 
sins against a holy God. 

There is a fine parallel between David's 
embassy of kindness to bring up Mephibo- 
sheth to Hebron and the mission of Christ's 
Gospel to crippled humanity in its exile. 
That royal chariot halting before the crip- 
ple's door and ready to carry him up to the 
king is a capital figure of God's mercy, that 
stops at the sinner's doorway. Grace fur- 
nishes and mans the chariot. Grace sent 



gob's kindness to the crippled. 291 

"the only begotten Son into the world, that 
whosoever trusteth in him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life." This home-bring- 
ing of the lame exile to the palace reminds 
one of that scene where the father welcomes 
home the wanderer from the far country, and 
kills the fatted calf for him, and clothes him 
in the best robe. 

This reception of a repentant soul is all 
for Jesus's sake ; even as Mephibosheth was 
welcomed "for Jonathan's sake.' 7 Christ's 
sufferings and intercessions are at the bottom 
of every sinner's salvation. Paul leaves no 
doubt on this point when he says: "God, 
for Christ's sake, has forgiven you." When 
we get admission to the marriage-supper in 
our Father's house our song will be to the 
praise of Him who came to seek and to save 
the lost. What a family of restored cripples 
there will be at that supper of the King ! 

Our friend, Mr. Moody, in one of his racy 
paraphrases of this story of Mephibosheth, 
says: "Some people think that, like certain 
low-spirited Christians, Mephibosheth, after 



292 POINTED PAPERS. 

he went to live with David, must have been 
all the time worrying over his lame feet. I 
don't think so. If David didn't mind the 
lameness, it was all right. So I think that 
w T hen he dined with the royal family, among 
all the great lords and ladies, he just stuck 
his club-feet under the table and looked the 
king right in the face. 1 ' This is a happy 
thought and happily put ; but to me it is far 
happier still to know that when Divine Grace 
saved me it cured the wretched lameness and 
enabled me to " walk and to leap and to 
praise God." 



THE FOUR ANCHORS. 



H)AUL 7 S voyage to Rome is one of those 
■*■ graphic episodes in the Word of God 
which never loses its interest. It not merely 
throws a strong light upon ancient naviga- 
tion, but it affords a strong confirmation of 
the truthfulness of Luke's "Book of the Acts 
of the Apostles. 77 Modern nautical surveys 
and soundings establish every word that Luke 
has written. But the narrative is susceptible 
of rich spiritual instruction. The perils of 
the voyage of life and the divinely-appoint- 
ed methods of deliverance are strikingly il- 
lustrated. Especially is there a wealth of 
practical teaching in the twenty-ninth verse, 
which tells us how the mariners in the tem- 
pest-tossed ship " cast four anchors out of the 
stern and wished for the day. 77 



294 POINTED PAPERS. 

Some shallow critics have jeered at the 
idea of anchoring a vessel from the stern. 
But an ancient painting on the walls of Her- 
culanaeum depicts a galley anchored in that 
manner. Modern mariners in the Mediter- 
ranean pursue the same practice. It is said 
that Lord Nelson got the idea of anchoring 
his fleet from the stern in the battle of Co- 
penhagen from reading the twenty-seventh 
chapter of The Acts. Certainly the endan- 
gered crew had a better chance of safety if 
the dawning of the day found them already 
headed toward the shore. What a long 
night must that have been to the drenched 
and weary voyagers, while they listened to 
the thunder of the breakers ! Paul, the pris- 
oner, is the real master of the situation and 
the coolest head on board. His precious life 
is insured from Heaven, for every good man 
"is immortal until his work is finished." It 
was a part of the providential plan that those 
anchors should preserve the most valuable 
life on the globe until Paul's mighty mission 
was accomplished. 



THE FOUR ANCHORS. 295 

But what are the four anchors which we 
voyagers to eternity must use when over- 
taken by the Euroclydons of temptation and 
trial? The first and foremost one is Faith. 
This is the soul's sure trust in an unseen 
God. Looking at a vessel around whose 
bows the billows are foaming, we may won- 
der what holds her so steady in the teeth of 
the gale ; for we do not see the stubborn 
anchor which, many fathoms down, is grap- 
pling with its flukes into the solid earth. 
That secure vessel is an "evidence of things 
not seen " below the surface of the angry sea. 
And this is the Bible definition of faith. The 
assailed believer does not anchor to his own 
good resolution nor to the support of other 
men. He takes strong hold on the precious 
promises of God and the everlasting strength. 
Other people see and admire his fortitude, 
his constancy, his composure ; but God alone 
beholds the "anchor of the soul, both sure 
and steadfast, which entereth into that which 
is within the veil." With a genuine Chris- 
tian, the sorer the trial the stronger is the 



296 POINTED PAPERS. 

trust. When Martin Luther was struck by 
a heavy head sea, he used to let slip the 
cable of the forty-sixth Psalm. The eleventh 
chapter of the Hebrews is the thrilling record 
of a whole line of spiritual navigators whose 
anchor of faith never dragged. 

In Great Britain no shipmaster is permitted 
to use an anchor which has not been tested 
and stamped with a government mark. If 
we wish to know whether our faith has the 
King's mark on it, we must examine his 
Word. A spurious faith, full of flaws, can 
not be relied on in a hurricane. The metal 
of our faith, so to speak, must be from God's 
Scripture-foundry. It must be lowered with 
entire trust upon God, and not upon our- 
selves. It must fasten itself to the everlast- 
ing veracity and power and love of the Al- 
mighty. Every link in the chain cable is a 
divine promise. When in the darkest night 
we heave out this anchor we may wait con- 
fidently for the dawning of the day. 

(2.) But no faith can avail us if it be not 
accompanied by godliness of practice. We 



THE FOUR ANCHORS. 297 

require, therefore, the second anchor of a 
godly conscience. Loyalty to the principles 
of God's Word, loyalty to the everlasting 
right, must be imbedded in the conscience 
and control the conduct, or else we drift 
upon the rocks. Faith without godly works 
is dead. It has been the lack of this loyalty 
of conscience to truth and honesty and right 
which has, in these late years, strewed the 
beach with the pitiable wrecks of disgraced 
church-members. It is not strength of intel- 
lect that saves a man, or the surroundings of 
society, or alliance with a church, or even or- 
thodoxy of belief. All these have proved but 
cables of straw attached to anchors of clay. 
We must have a conscience taught of God 
and held by God, or we drift upon the lee 
shore. No one is safe in business, or safe in 
public life, or safe in private morality, when 
he loosens his life from God's commandments. 
God never insures a man, even in the Church, 
except while his anchor is fastened to the 
divine principles of right, with the cable of 
practical obedience. 



298 POINTED PAPERS. 

It is not the gale which carries so many on 
the rocks or the quicksands. It is the silent 
under-current. One person drifts into dishon- 
est practices, sanctioned by "the trade"; an- 
other into neglect of secret prayer ; another 
feels the clutch of sensual temptations on the 
keel, but takes no alarm until he strikes the 
rock and a hideous rent is discovered in his 
character. The under-current of worldliness 
is powerful in these times and productive of 
no little backsliding. The world gets strong 
hold upon the Christian professor's keel and 
his conscience loses its hold on Christ. Si- 
lently and surely he swims, as over a sea of 
glass, until he — strikes! The friendship of 
the world is the enmity of God. 

(3.) That was a tedious night of peril and 
gloom which laid upon Paul and his ship- 
mates ; but they held out and waited for the 
day. Methinks one of their four anchors 
might well have been named Patience. We, 
too, have need of patience. It is that staying 
power in the soul, that " long-mindedness " 
(as Paul called it, in his Epistle to Colosse) 



THE FOUR ANCHORS. 299 

which endures a continued strain without 
flinching. Mark how much the Old Testa- 
ment makes of ''waiting patiently on God." 
In the New Testament the word is endurance. 
He that endureth to the end shall be saved. 
In this Jesus Christ is our illustrious example. 
How steadily he bore every thing until he 
reached that supreme "bearing of our sins' 7 
and sorrows upon Calvary's cross ! 

"There is no pain that I can bear, 
But thou, my Lord, hast borne it; 
No robe of scorn that I can wear, 
But thou, my Lord, hast worn it." 

(4.) The twin sister of Patience is Hope. 
The sorely- tried patience of the tempest-tost 
company would have given out, except for 
the expectation of the morning light. We 
are saved by hope ; saved from utter reck- 
lessness and despair. The Christian's hope 
is founded on the sure, unwavering promise 
that, though weeping may last through the 
night, joy cometh in the morning. Brother 
believer ! let the storm howl its worst and 



300 POINTED PAPERS. 

our canvas snap to ribbons. If we have 
committed every thing to Jesus, we shall all 
reach land. This hope we have as an anchor 
sure and steadfast. But God pity the soul 
that is risking its eternity upon the broken 
anchor of a false hope ! 

A grand sight is an old weather-beaten and 
battle-bruised ship — like "Old Ironsides" or 
Lord Nelson's "Victory" — which has ended 
its cruise and swung its anchors at the bow. 
So will Christ's fleet of triumphant souls lie 
in the desired haven, upon the sea of crystal, 
and in the silver light of Heaven's morning ! 
Over us will be proclaimed those glorious 
words: "Here is the patience of the saints! 
Here are they who kept the commandments 
of God and the faith of Jesus ! " 



EEST FOR THE RESTLESS. 



TT was out of King David's weak side that 
-*- there came that oft-quoted cry: "Oh! 
that I had wings like a dove ; for then would 
I fly away and be at rest." There was a 
better side of the man, from which came 
such triumphant shouts as this : " Though 
an host should encamp against me, my heart 
shall not fear." Or this one: "I have be- 
haved, and quieted myself as a child that is 
weaned of his mother." Or this noble in- 
junction: "Rest in the Lord and wait pa- 
tiently for him." 

David was, no doubt, in genuine trouble 
when he longed for the wings of a dove. 
His kingdom was in insurrection, his throne 
in peril, and the treacherous darling of his 



302 POINTED PAPERS. 

heart was snatching at his crown. Under 
these accumulated miseries the old exile from 
Jerusalem envied the turtle-dove which, fly- 
ing past him toward the forest, could go 
whithersoever it would. Suppose his wish 
had been granted. He might have fled from 
the post of duty, which was a post of danger. 
But would not his troubles have flown with 
him as fast and as far as he ? Might not 
fresh troubles have met him in the place 
whither he flew? 

David's prayer, though a weak one, was 
very natural. It is perfectly natural that we 
all should grow restless under trouble. It 
was perfectly natural for him to indulge his 
petted son Absalom ; but how dearly he paid 
for his folly. It was perfectly natural for 
Job's wife (whom I believe to have been a 
good woman, and not a vixen) to have ex- 
claimed, when her heart was crushed under 
a hurricane of trials: "Dost thou still retain 
thy integrity ? Eenounce God and die ! " 
Nature in all these cases behaved badly. 
It was the part of grace to have behaved 



REST FOR THE RESTLESS. 303 

better. A sorry excuse is it for us who 
claim to be Christians that, when we do a 
weak or wicked thing, we so often say: "It 
is quite natural to feel or to act as we do." 
What is divine grace offered to us for, un- 
less it be to triumph over the weakness and 
errors of our poor wayward nature? 

Thousands of us are repeating David's rest- 
less cry as often as we are put under the pres- 
sure. When the rod of chastisement makes 
us smart, or a load of worries is chafing us, 
how often we are tempted to pray for the 
wings of a dove to carry us away. We 
hardly know or care where it be, so that it 
be out of the reach of the rod or the worry. 
Our wayward selfishness says: Fly! God's 
loving voice says : Be still. 

Sometimes a swarm of cares and calls press 
in upon us in a perfect crowd, tramping on 
each other. Work pushes us. Interruptions 
annoy. Mishaps befall us. We take these 
accumulated vexations so hard and chafe so 
under the friction. We borrow fresh trou- 
bles from the morrow, and anticipate worse 



304 POINTED PAPERS. 

things to come. Under this sharp strain, 
faith and fortitude often give way, and we 
cry out in a sort of restless despair: "Oh! 
for wings to fly away and be at rest." 

When in this state of feeling — so perfectly 
natural and yet so unworthy of a Christian 
— we frequently get a message from our 
Heavenly Father. Perhaps we open our Bi- 
bles and read such words as these: "Rest in 
the Lord and wait patiently for him." Or we 
light upon these words: "Beloved count it 
all joy when ye fall into divers trials ; know- 
ing this, that the trial of your faith worketh 
patience." Once when I was dreadfully har- 
assed by a doubt whether I should remain 
in a certain pulpit or go to a very inviting 
one, eight hundred miles away, I opened 
Cecil's wise book of practical thoughts, and 
my eyes fell on these "pat " and pithy words : 
" Taking new steps in life are very serious 
dangers, especially if in our motives there be 
any mixture of ambition. ' Wherefore gaddest 
thou about to change thy way?'" Now I did 
not know before that there was such a pas- 



REST FOR THE RESTLESS. 305 

sage in the Bible. I turned to the second 
chapter of Jeremiah, and found it there, 
though translated a little differently. I re- 
solved at once not to " gad about " or change 
my field of labor, and have thanked God for 
that timely Scripture hint ever since. 

The reader of this chapter will recall, prob- 
ably, just such experiences of his own. He 
was longing to run away from school, be- 
cause God gave him hard lessons to learn, 
and sometimes used the rod. Or he was in 
"the fining pot" of trial, and the fire burned 
hot. There was a terrible temptation to re- 
bel and to try to escape from the fiery ordeal. 
But, if you had been allowed your own way, 
your silver never would have been refined 
or the dross purged out of your character. 
When we were children, and suffered from a 
decayed tooth, the sight of the dentist's ugly 
instrument made us start to run. But kind 
old mother said: "Sit down and take it brave- 
ly. It will soon be out, and then you will 
feel better." 

This same process has been gone through 
20 



306 POINTED PAPERS. 

hundreds of times since. God was using the 
lancet, and we tried to escape from it. Tem- 
porary relief, immediate ease, was what we 
wanted, instead of permanent benefit. Run- 
ning away would only have postponed the 
difficulty or retarded the cure. We needed 
to be kept still until G-od -had got through with 
his surgery ; for it is not the escape from dis- 
cipline or the shirking of painful loads that 
makes a Christian strong. That was a very 
selfish and cowardly prayer of the old royal 
refugee: "Oh! that I had wings like a dove 
to fly away." He might better have asked 
for strength from heaven to stand fast and 
firm, like an anvil when it is smitten heavily. 
It is usually a piece of moral cowardice when 
we run from a hard place to an easy one, or 
from a dangerous post to a snugly-sheltered 
one. Many lives become utter failures from 
the simple lack of courage. 

II. Another point must not be forgotten. 
The changes which we make from the motive 
of self-indulgence or of sheer restlessness are 
seldom changes for the better. The weary 



REST FOR THE RESTLESS. 307 

sufferer begs to be carried into another room ; 
but he carries his pain with him. City peo- 
ple, tired of hard pavements and heavy taxes, 
see such enchantment in a June landscape 
that they determine to move into the country. 
But when winter blockades them, and they 
miss genial society and their church-meetings 
and other accustomed privileges, they find 
that the country is not the perfect paradise 
they dreamed of, and wish themselves back 
again. New troubles live in the new place. 
The "dove- wings" simply carry us away from 
one set of troubles into another set, which we 
may not have any more grace to bear. It 
is not change of place or change of circum- 
stances that we need most. It is a change of 
heart. Our lives do not consist in mere ex- 
ternals. Would that those ambitious world- 
lings who are all the time coveting, and 
grasping, and pulling down, to build greater, 
might learn that they will never be satisfied. 
Money, office, luxury, fine equipage never 
can satisfy the soul that starves itself out 
of Christ. 



308 POINTED PAPERS. 

It is not only the men of the world that 
commit these sins. This restless spirit often 
disturbs and dishonors God's children. We 
give the lie to our own professions and dis- 
grace our good names when we indulge in 
these restless and rebellious feelings. It is 
a hard lesson to learn, but a very profitable 
one, that where God puts us we ought to 
stay, and what he orders we ought to do. 
His place is always the right place. My own 
early ministry was in a very difficult and dis- 
couraging field. I foolishly resolved to flee 
from it; but the Master kept me there, and 
presently a most glorious revival-shower burst 
upon the little field and made it smell like a 
garden of roses. God kept me from losing 
a good lesson and a rich blessing. I did not 
deserve the mercy that he sent me. 

Oh ! that every restless spirit would learn 
that many a loss is really a gain, many a hin- 
drance is wisely meant to help us, many a 
humiliation exalts us in the end, many a cross 
is indispensable to the winning of a crown. 
We are often going up spiritually when, ap- 



REST FOR THE RESTLESS. 309 

parently, we are going down. We are often 
helped on our way by being hedged up or 
turned back. This is a paradox; but it is 
just as true as that " when I am weak then 
am I strong," or "having nothing I may pos- 
sess all things " in Christ. Then let us quit 
praying for the dove's wings and stand in 
our lot bravely and quietly. It will be time 
enough for the flight of the dove when our 
life-work is ended and the door of our Fa- 
ther's house stands open for our coming. 

"I would not have the restless will 
That hurries to and fro, 
Seeking for some great thing to do 

Or secret thing to know ; 

I would be treated as a child 

And guided where to go. 

"There are briers besetting every path 

That call for patient care; 
There is a cross in every lot 

And a constant need for prayer; 
But a lowly heart that leans on thee 

Is happy anywhere." 



REFINING THE GOLD. 



"T^HERE is a place for the gold where 
-*■ they fine it." This line from the 
book of Job — so strong in its monosyllables 
• — describes a spiritual as well as a chemical 
process. Over and over again in the Bible 
godly character is described by the happy 
simile of gold. It would be easy to run out 
the points of resemblance. All nations, from 
the polished to the savage, have agreed in 
regarding it the most beautiful of metals. 
It typifies the " beauty of holiness." It is 
an imperishable metal. When they opened 
the tomb of an old Etrurian king, buried 
twenty-five centuries ago, they found only a 
heap of royal dust. The only object that 
remained untouched by time was a fillet of 
gold which bound the monarch's brow. So 



REFINING THE GOLD. 311 

doth true godliness survive . the havoc of time 
and the ravages of the grave. Gold is the 
basis of a solvent currency; and genuine 
fear of God is the basis of all the virtues 
which pass current among humanity. The 
essence of all piety is obedience to God. It 
is the eternal law of right put into daily 
practice. Too much is said in these days 
about the aesthetics of religion and its sen- 
sibilities. Religion's home is in the con- 
science. Its watchword is the word ought. 
Its highest joy is in doing God's will. 

Gold is a product of the Divine Hand. So 
is true godliness. Brass is a human com- 
pound ; but no human skill has ever discov- 
ered the philosopher's stone which can trans- 
mute the baser metals into gold. All these 
modern pulpiteers who prattle so glibly about 
"developing manhood, 77 and "educating the 
divine element in every man's heart, 77 etc., are 
engaged in the same bootless folly of attempt- 
ing to create gold out of what is essentially 
base and corrupt. Two things God teaches 
us unmistakably — viz., man is by nature ut- 



312 POINTED PAPERS. 

terly depraved, and regeneration is the divine 
work. All the gold that shone so brightly in 
Abraham on the mount of sacrifice ; all the 
gold that withstood the furnace of Babylon 
and came out so pure in tempted Daniel, was 
the direct creation of the Almighty Spirit. 
Paul never babbled nonsense about develop- 
ing his own manhood. He humbly affirmed 
that "by the grace of God I am what I am." 
"I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." 
The end and aim of Christ's redeeming 
work is to produce godly character. The 
purpose of God's providence with his children 
is to test their graces, and to improve and 
strengthen them. All is not gold that glit- 
ters. Genuine godliness is the " gold tried 
in the fire." The Apostle Peter unfolded a 
grand truth when he said "that the trial of 
our faith, being much more precious than of 
gold, which perisheth, though it be tried with 
fire, might be found unto praise and glory at 
the appearing of Jesus Christ." Our religion 
must be severely tested to prove its priceless 
value. An army officer went to several of 



REFINING THE GOLD. 313 

Mr. Moody's meetings lately to "find out if 
there was any thing in the Christian religion." 
A better way to know what Christ is worth 
to a human soul would be to try Christ for 
himself in his own heart and daily life. If 
it gave him forgiveness of past sins and power 
to resist present temptations ; if it held him 
fast against the under-currents of passion and 
selfishness and lust • if it purified his heart and 
sweetened his temper and lifted him into com- 
munion with God, he would require no en- 
dorsements from Mr. Moody to prove to him 
its golden qualities. 

The chief purpose of our Heavenly Father 
in his dealings with his redeemed children is 
to improve their graces. Every branch that 
beareth fruit he purgeth, that it may bring 
forth more fruit. God has a great many 
places for his gold, where he refines it. 
There is often so much alloy of pride, and 
self-will, and covetousness, and cowardice, 
and unbelief, even in genuine Christians, that 
they require the "fining-pot" and the furnace 
pretty often. We do not usually speak of 



314 POINTED PAPERS. 

prosperity as a state of severe trial ; but so 
it is. A sharper test could not be applied to 
most Christians than to subject them to sud- 
den prosperity. How the sunshiny days do 
bring out the adders! On the other hand, 
a sunny career of health, wealth, and social 
eminence often brings out a beautiful display 
of humility and unselfish devotion to Christ's 
cause and the good of others. When I see 
a certain prosperous merchant robbing him- 
self of his ease in order to drive his various 
schemes of benevolence, and quitting his own 
drawing-room in order to visit the poor waifs 
of his mission school, I feel sure that God 
can trust that man with a large income. 
Popularity is a sore trial, that often develops 
a fearful amount of dross. But not always. 
The best evidence that our brother, Moody, 
has yet given of his staunch bullion is that; 
he can bear being lifted to a most perilous 
popularity without his head growing dizzy. 
There is only one other more severe test to 
which he could be subjected, and that would 
be to lose all this eminent favor of his fellow- 



REFINING THE GOLD. 315 

men and to find himself powerless to attract 
crowds to listen to his message. If he could 
submit to such an humiliation as meekly as 
he has borne his exaltation, we would deem 
him a nugget of gold an ''hundred carats" 
fine. 

God oftener uses adversity as a purifier. 
The wintry snows that lie before my win- 
dow here (at Saratoga) this morning will kill 
the vermin. So God sends wintry seasons 
upon his children, to kill certain species of 
besetting sins. He often casts his people 
down, in order to see whether they will cast 
him off. Poverty is a place for his gold, 
where he fines it. Nowhere does the soul 
discover more the preciousness of the un- 
searchable riches of Christ than when the fur- 
nace of adversity has consumed all his earthly 
pelf. Arthur Tappan was never richer tow- 
ard God than when, in the commercial crash 
of 1837, he handed his watch to his assignee 
and said: "I give up every thing to my cred- 
itors." It was a hot ordeal to subject such 
a man to; but he came forth as gold. 



316 POINTED PAPERS. 

We pastors often go into sick-rooms which 
are "fining-pots" for the King's own. In 
such places of suffering, we have seen the 
drosses run off day by day, and have heard 
the patient heart sing in the Refiner's ear: 

"Pain's furnace-heat within me quivers, 
God's breath upon the flame doth blow, 
And all my heart in anguish shivers 
And trembles at the fiery glow; 
And yet I whisper, * As God will!* 
And in the hottest fire — hold still." 

There may be some readers of this chap- 
ter who wonder why a just and loving 
God has subjected them to such repeated or 
to such long-continued trials. Our only an- 
swer is that the Divine Purifier sees that they 
need all this experience of the furnace. The 
chemist who is purifying silver over a hot 
flame always keeps the crucible on the fire 
until he can see his own face reflected in the 
clear metal as in a mirror. My brother or 
sister, when the dear Jesus who "sitteth as 
a refiner" over your heart can see his own 
image reflected in you, then will the chastis- 



REFINING THE GOLD. 317 

ing discipline be finished. Then he can break 
the crucible, and pour thy gifts and thy in- 
fluence into such a mould as may suit best 
his all-wise purpose. He requires pure gold, 
to make the "vessel to his own honor." 



A TIME AND PLACE FOR MEETING 
JESUS. 



r I ^HERE was one spot on earth which Je- 

"*■ sus seems to have especially loved. It 
was "his wont" to go there. As John was 
his favorite disciple, the family of Lazarus, 
his favorite household, Galilee, his favorite 
water, so Olivet was his favorite mountain. 
An oriental city, with its crowded and filthy 
streets, could have no charm for such a spirit 
as his. When duty called our Lord into Je- 
rusalem, he went there ; but as soon as he 
could escape from its dirt, its dogs, and its 
din he bent his footsteps over the Valley of 
Kedron to the quiet Mount of Olives. 

It afforded him a blessed asylum from noisy 
traffickers, churlish scribes, and insolent Phar- 



TIME AND PLACE FOR MEETING JESUS. 319 

isees. Olivet always treated him kindly. Oli- 
vet cast no stones at him. Her ancient trees 
gave him cool shelter from the noonday 
heat and the heavy night dews. Her flow- 
ers talked to their Creator- Jesus, and her 
verdant turf spread a couch for his weary 
limbs. It is hard to identify more than three 
or four places now on which we are certain 
that Christ set his foot. One of these is the 
well's mouth at Sychar. A second is the hill- 
top above Nazareth. The third is that still 
beaten road that leads over Olivet to the 
ruined village of Bethany. 

It was on that roadside that Jesus was 
sitting when he beheld guilty Jerusalem and 
wept over it. It was about that same spot 
where he sat and delivered that wonderful 
prophetic discourse (in the twenty-fourth chap- 
ter of Matthew) on the Tuesday of his passion 
week. He slept that night at Bethany, on 
the eastern slope of the mountain. On the 
next day, as the conspirators were lying in 
wait for him, he did not enter Jerusalem at 
all. Probably he passed it in deep retire- 



320 POINTED PAPERS. 

ment upon Olivet, communing with his Heav- 
enly Father and preparing silently for that 
tremendous tragedy which should soon cast 
its pall of midday darkness over the city's 
streets and Calvary's altar of sacrifice. He 
needed repose. That day he dwelt apart. 
And, as Dr. Farrar eloquently says : "On 
that Wednesday night he lay down for the 
last time on earth. On the Thursday morn- 
ing he awoke, never to sleep again." We 
must not think of Jesus as living with his 
disciples after the manner of men during the 
forty days between his crucifixion and his 
ascension. His public work was over. He 
only gave his disciples an occasional inter- 
view, and his last appearance among them 
was that memorable and sublime moment 
when he parted from them on the eastern 
brow of Olivet and a " cloud received him 
out of their sight." 

I have reviewed this connection of our 
Lord with that sacred spot, not only for its 
historic interest, but for its spiritual sugges- 
tions. If Jesus sought a place for quiet med- 



TIME AND PLACE FOR MEETING JESUS. 321 

itation and for retirement from the city's bus- 
tle and Babel noises, every Christian should 
have his Olivet also. Those of us who live 
in large towns are apt to live at high pres- 
sure. The rural Christian has the scenery 
and the solitudes of God's great, wide country 
about him. But in the bustling, bewildering, 
driving, roaring city, how difficult it is to 
''dwell apart." Where and how can we es- 
cape the roar and the contagion of excite- 
ments? Where shall we find a Hermon or 
a Horeb, a brook Cherith or a Mount of 
Olives ? 

From early morn until bedtime we city 
folk are exposed to the whirl. The world 
meets us at the breakfast-table in the columns 
of the morning journal. We snatch the rec- 
ord of fires and floods, telegrams and trials, 
with our cup of coffee. After a hurried meal, 
we launch out into the crowded day. Engage- 
ments press. Care collars the tradesman, the 
lawyer, and, in fact, every man, as soon as 
he gets into the street. When he reaches his 

place of business, his table is probably piled 
21 



322 POINTED PAPERS. 

with letters demanding prompt reply. Cus- 
tomers pour in or patrons wait; or, even if 
one earns his bread on a fourth floor, the 
" elevator" brings the street up to his door. 
The day's furnace of excitement is kindled in 
the morning and glows at a white heat until 
the crowded omnibus or rail-car carries the 
weary man out of it toward the sunset. I 
know of Christian merchants with whom I 
can never catch a five minutes' important 
conversation without keeping one or more 
others waiting impatiently behind me. After 
such bustling days, come the late dinner, the 
evening paper, the evening visitors, the pub- 
lic entertainments, and, in some happy cases, 
the evening prayer-meeting in God's house. 
Amid all this maelstrom of excitement, how 
little chance for quiet introspection, calm 
meditation, or devout fellowship with Jesus! 
Even the Sabbath is too often a day of 
overtaxing strain upon body and mind. Ev- 
ery good thing has its attendant evils ; and 
the evil attendant upon the Sabbath arrange- 
ments of many active Christians is that they 



TIME AND PLACE FOR MEETING JESUS. 323 

are deprived of nearly all opportunity for re- 
pose of mind, or for study of their own hearts 
or of God's precious Word. With many good 
people there is more preaching than praying 
or thinking, more head work than heartwork, 
more swallowing of truth than digestion. 
They hear tenfold more than they heed or 
remember. And still the cormorant cry is 
for more sermons, sermons, sermons. To 
such people — and their name is legion — the 
excitements of the week simply give place 
to the religious excitements of God's day, 
and through them all the immortal soul finds 
too little converse either with itself or with 
God. If Jesus needed an Olivet for quiet 
communion and prayer, surely, his earthly 
followers need one still more. 

Can none be found ? Can city Christians 
discover no times or places for meditation, 
prayer, Bible study, or heart-converse with 
their Lord ? Yes ; they may, if they so de- 
termine. I know of a busy but most pious 
merchant who rises early, and so hems the day 
with a good hour over his Bible and on his 



324 POINTED PAPERS. 

knees that it does not ravel out into frivolity 
or undue conformity to the world. I have 
known of others who had a place for secret 
prayer at noonday in the loft of their ware- 
houses. Some catch a half-hour of refresh- 
ment in the noon prayer-meeting. Others 
rigidly keep quiet evening hours for bathing 
their souls. No Christian can afford to live 
constantly in the whirl. Daniel needed to 
have an Olivet in his chamber, amid Baby- 
lon's roar and impiety. Peter found his on 
a housetop in Joppa. Let every child of 
Jesus resolve that he will have a place and 
a time for meeting his dear Master alone, and 
he will go forth from such holy interviews 
with his face shining and his strength re- 
newed. Our Olivets will prepare us for that 
mount of heavenly glory where we shall see 
Jesus as he is. 



THE FACE TOWARD JERUSALEM. 



"TJYERY step of the Lord Jesus Christ left 
-" a footprint for his followers to study. 
We should be looking for these footprints of 
our Master and endeavor to tread in them 
ourselves. Every word and act of Jesus has 
a spiritual significance for us. For example, 
we find a vitally important truth — yes, sev- 
eral of them — wrapped up in that incident 
recorded in the ninth chapter of St. Luke. 
Jesus had just bade farewell to Galilee 
and set out on his final journey to Jerusa- 
lem. The time for him to be offered and to 
" be received up " was at hand. So he stead- 
fastly set his face toward Jerusalem, although 
he knew that for him were being prepared 
a cruel mockery and an ignominious, bloody 



326 POINTED PAPERS. 

death. As soon as he had crossed the hills 
on the southern border of Galilee he reached 
the pretty Samaritan village of El-Gannim (or 
"Fountain of Gardens''). He comes attended 
by a multitude of followers, and asks for food 
and lodging over night in the village. But 
the bitterly bigoted Samaritans of the little 
town insultingly refuse him shelter, because 
' ' his face was as though he would go to Jerusa- 
lem. 11 Rudely repulsed, he leaves the churl- 
ish inhabitants on his flank and moves on, by 
another route, toward the " City of the Great 
King. 77 

Now this incident, which is too often over- 
looked as unimportant, has some suggestive 
lessons to the Christian. It teaches us, in the 
first place, that we should never shrink from 
a path of duty, however many be the obsta- 
cles we may encounter. Jesus had an errand 
of sublime self-sacrifice to be performed at 
Jerusalem, and he was not to be diverted 
from it by any obstruction that human enmity 
could lay across his path. Brethren, you and 
I often find the line of duty made harder by 



THE FACE TOWARD JERUSALEM. 327 

irritating oppositions — often, too, from the 
very people whom we aim to benefit. The 
temptation is strong to invoke a malediction 
on our opposers (as John and James did upon 
the foolish bigots of the Samaritan village). 
The Master's example teaches us to march un- 
flinchingly forward in the path of duty, with 
our faces steadfastly set toward God. This 
is not an age of heroic Christianity. There 
is more pulp than pluck in the average Chris- 
tian professor, when self-denial is required. 
The men and women who not only rejoice in 
doing their duty for Christ, but even rejoice 
in overcoming uncomfortable obstacles in the 
doing it, are quite too scarce. The piety that 
is most needed is a piety that will stand a 
pinch ; a piety that would rather eat an hon- 
est crust than fare sumptuously on fraud ; a 
piety that can work up stream against cur- 
rents ; a piety that sets its face like a flint 
in the straight, narrow road of righteousness. 
2. Such an uncompromising religion must 
not expect an}^ help or hospitality from the 
world. Jesus found himself on hostile soil as 



328 POINTED PAPERS. 

soon as he set foot in Samaria. The Chris- 
tian also must reach the New Jerusalem by 
a straight march through an enemy's country. 

"This world is not a friend to grace, 
To help us on to God." 

This world has hated me, and it will hate 
you, was Christ's fair warning to his disciples. 
It is as true now as it was then that whoso- 
ever will be the uncompromising friend of 
Christ will be treated as an enemy by those 
who despise the religion of the Cross. The 
piety that is not ashamed to be nicknamed 
"Puritanical" is not popular in this world, 
and never will be until the Millennium. Yet, 
to keep on good terms with the world and 
at the same time not to "break" with the 
Lord Jesus Christ is the absurd 'and abortive 
endeavor of too many who profess and call 
themselves Christians. Bunyan describes this 
style of character in "Mr. Facing-both-ways." 
This class hanker after all the fashions and 
follies of Vanity Fair, aim to get their fill of 
sinful enjoyments, that can be indulged in 



THE FACE TOWARD JERUSALEM. 329 

without too much public scandal ; and yet 
claim to be the Lord's pilgrims, bound toward 
the Celestial City. This wretched attempt at 
compromise and conformity only provokes the 
contempt of the world's people and the holy 
indignation of God. A Christian never wins 
the world by going over to it. "Come out 
and be ye separate ! " is Christ's solemn in- 
junction. True godliness of life and the true 
enjoyment of life both depend upon a hearty, 
conscientious obedience to Christ's command- 
ments. No man can possibly serve two op- 
posing masters. Now, if there be a single 
backsliding reader of this article, who has got 
himself entangled in sinful compliances and 
has drifted off into conformity with the world, 
let me exhort him to begin this new year by 
setting his face like a flint toward Jerusalem. 
Backsliding always begins with getting our 
faces away from Jesus. Whither the face 
looks the footsteps tend. While Paul was 
"looking unto Jesus" he kept on pressing 
toward the heavenly prize. As soon as we 
cease to keep our eye on God's Word as 



330 POINTED PAPERS. 

our rule of daily conduct, on Christ's cross 
as our only hope of salvation, and on Christ's 
service as our chief end of life, we begin to 
backslide. No Christian's countenance can 
shine when it is turned away from his Sa- 
viour. No awakened sinner ever can hope 
to obtain peace and divine help for a better 
life as long as he looks back longingly toward 
the sins of Sodom. "Remember Lot's wife." 
3. It was probably about the time of his 
repulse by the Samaritans that Jesus deliv- 
ered those solemn injunctions to his followers 
about taking up their cross daily, if they 
would be his disciples. He drew a sharp 
line and made a clean issue. Whoever did 
not care more for him and his Gospel than 
for kindred and property, for houses and 
lands and popularity, was not worthy of a 
place in his Kingdom. There was to be no 
wavering. The man who put his hand to the 
plough and looked back was not fit for the King- 
dom of God. In the original Greek the word 
is "not well put 11 for the Kingdom. This im- 
plies that his feet are on the solid rock, and 



THE FACE TOWARD JERUSALEM. 331 

that he stands well in his shoes, with his face 
set like a flint toward God. All the most 
effective characters in the Bible — Daniel in 
Babylon, Elijah before Ahab, Peter before 
the council, and Paul at Nero's bar — were 
men of this fibre. Their eyes looked only 
one way, and they looked clearly. They 
could not be cajoled or frightened. Their 
countenances — like the countenance of Ste- 
phen when it was upturned toward Heaven — 
shone as an angel's, in the light of God. 

It is a religion of this fibre that the times 
demand. We need more of the Christianity 
that steadfastly sets its face toward Christ's 
Word and holy will. An ungodly world will 
be compelled to look at such Christly living 
as at "the sun shining in its strength." God 
loves to look at those who carry Jesus in 
their faces. Of such is the Kingdom of 
Heaven. 

Such living brings happy dying. Good 
Dean Alford asked that it might be inscribed 
on his tombstone: "This is the inn of a trav- 
eller on his way to Jerusalem." To many 



332 POINTED PAPERS. 

of us this may be the last year on earth. Let 
us determine to so live that, when Death calls 
our names on his roll, we may be found with 
our faces steadfastly set toward " Jerusalem 
the Golden." 



NEARER TO GOD. 



r I ^HERE is many a one who can sing 
A "Nearer, my God, to Thee/ 7 and yet 
never makes that the daily prayer of the 
heart and the daily endeavor of the life. 
Yet God is constantly saying to every one 
of us_: "Draw nigh unto me, and I will draw 
nigh unto you." This is the inviting com- 
mand and the commanding invitation to ev- 
ery sinner who is still self-exiled into the far 
country of impenitence. The first step of the 
sinner must be to arise and go to his Father. 
God seeks the sinner, and then, under the 
drawings of the Holy Spirit, the sinner seeks 
God. There is a double finding. The seek- 
ing Shepherd finds the wanderer, and the 
wanderer finds Jesus. He becomes the way, 



334 POINTED PAPERS. 

the truth, the life. Those who were "afar off 
are thus made nigh by the blood of Christ." 
This is the Bible process of conversion ; and 
what is true of the beginning is equally true 
of the whole subsequent experience of a gen- 
uine Christian life. It is a perpetual drawing 
nigh unto God. 

The eighth verse of the fourth chapter of 
James is a signal-text that ought to be hoist- 
ed very often from every pulpit. It should 
be kept constantly flying. "Draw nigh to 
God, and he will draw nigh to you." It is 
the divine call to prayer, the call to return 
from backsliding, the call to consecration of 
ourselves and to a daily communion with our 
Heavenly Father. The sin and the shame of 
too many of us who profess and call ourselves 
Christians is that we live too far from God. 
Hence our weakness ; hence comes the secret 
declension into a low, formal, juiceless type 
of religion. Here, too, lies the reason for the 
fall of hundreds into open disgrace. No man 
ever falls who lives near to Jesus. 

I. If you ask what we gain by drawing 



NEARER TO GOD. 335 

nigh to God, I would answer that we gain 
new strength. The strength of yesterday will 
not suffice for to-day, any more than yester- 
day's food will support me if I neglected my 
meal this morning. God means that we shall 
be kept in constant dependence. Therefore, 
he metes out "strength equal to the day." 
No Christian can live on an old experience, 
or a covenant made in years gone by, or on 
the divine help that was furnished him when 
he had his last encounter with the Tempt- 
er. A new trial awaits Peter, and, if Peter 
does not ask and secure the strength for 
the conflict then waging, he is struck down 
to the dust. Laodicea's Christians were once 
sound. They ceased to live near God, and he 
" spewed them out of his mouth." 

II. The only place of security is in close 
heart-connection with God. The soldier who 
keeps the ranks on the march, or within the 
citadel during the assault, is commonly safe. 
The " stragglers" fall into the hands of the 
enemy. A. lamentable number of those en- 
rolled on our church records belong to this 



336 POINTED PAPERS. 

class. Among this class of backsliders are 
found the victims of Satan — the men who be- 
tray fiduciary trusts ; the weak-kneed time- 
servers, who succumb in times of hard pres- 
sure, for want of principle ; the votaries of 
fashion, who go from the communion-table to 
the haunts of revelry, to disgrace their Mas- 
ter. There is no need that a Christian should 
ever fall, or ever relapse into a cold, worldly, 
faithless condition for a single day. If we 
live close to God, all the powers of Hell can 
not harm us. We shall be ever under his 
eye. We shall walk in the light and our con- 
science will never be befogged. God will 
"hide us in the secret of his pavilion." He 
will set our feet upon the rock. 

III. We wonder sometimes why certain 
people of our acquaintance shine with such 
a steady lustre of piety. Their spiritual in- 
fluence is far out of proportion to their tal- 
ents, or mental culture, or social advantages. 
But the cause of their superior brightness 
is the same that has made Yen us and Mars 
so brilliant in the evening heavens. While 



NEARER TO GOD. 337 

mighty Saturn and Neptune were almost in- 
visible, through their remoteness from the 
sun, the two small planets which revolve 
close to the source of light become luminaries 
of the first rank. A very humble Christian 
may become a burning and a shining light in 
his church and in society if his orbit is very 
near to Christ. He reflects Christ in his 
every-day conduct. It is only as he recedes 
from the Sun of Righteousness that the Chris- 
tian- becomes either invisible or sheds the 
baneful influence of a wandering star. 

There are many who desire to be useful 
workers for the salvation of souls, and yet 
lose sight of the fact that they must draw 
nigh to God, and live nigh to God, if they 
would draw others. No parent can do any 
thing for the conversion of his child if he him- 
self lives away from God. His appeals will 
disgust his children as mere cant. Power to 
win souls is derived from close living contact 
with the Divine Source of all power. When 
I was a student at Princeton, Professor Henry 

had so constructed a huge bar of iron, bent 
22 



338 POINTED PAPERS. 

into the form of a horseshoe, that it used to 
hang suspended from another iron bar above 
it. Not only did it hang there, but it upheld 
4,000 pounds weight attached to it! That 
horseshoe magnet was not welded or glued 
to the metal above it ; but through the iron 
wire coiled around it there ran a subtle cur- 
rent of electricity from a galvanic battery. 
Stop the flow of the current one instant, 
and the huge horseshoe dropped. So does 
all the lifting power of a Christian come from 
the currents of spiritual influence which flow 
into his heart from the Living Jesus. The 
strength of the Almighty One enters into the 
believer. If his connection with Christ is cut 
off, in an instant he becomes as weak as any 
other man. 

Charles Gr. Finney used to discover that 
sometimes his preaching was mighty in its in- 
fluence to convict and convert sinners. At 
other times he seemed to be firing only blank 
cartridges. The results depended entirely up- 
on his own spiritual condition, upon his near- 
ness to or his absence from God. When he 



NEARER TO GOD. 339 

was in close communion with God the cur- 
rents of power were mighty and irresistible. 
When his connection with the Lord ceased, 
either through unbelief or unworthy living, 
his lifting power was gone. Drawing nigh to 
God was invariably the most effectual way to 
draw the impenitent. 

The concentrating and culminating act of 
drawing nigh to the Lord is prayer. To this 
especial exercise of the soul James refers, and 
what a happy description of prayer it is. The 
longing soul lays hold on God, clings to him, 
and " will not let him go," except the blessing 
come. So Jacob wrestled. So the Canaan- 
itish woman grasped the Saviour and would 
not be shaken off. While listening to George 
Muller, it has seemed to me that his prayers 
are of this simple, sincere, clinging character. 
He holds on to God. The old Scotch door- 
keeper used to say; "There's nae gude done, 
John, till ye get into the close grups." 

Not only successful prayer comes from close 
approaches to God (through Jesus, the Inter- 
cessor) ; but all godly living likewise. The 



340 POINTED PAPERS. 

world is a powerful magnet, and we can not 
serve two masters. The demand of the hour 
is for a Christ-like Church, honest, truthful, 
fearless, living near to God, and keeping his 
commandments. To such a Church God will 
"draw nigh " in wonderful blessings. He will 
reveal himself as he does not to the world. 

I have heard of a monk who, in his cell, 
had a glorious vision of Jesus revealed to 
him. Just then a bell rang, which called him 
away to distribute loaves of bread among the 
poor beggars at the gate. He was sorely 
tried as to whether he should lose a scene 
so inspiring. He went to his act of mercy ; 
and when he came back the vision remained, 
more glorious than ever. Brethren, the bell 
that calls us to duty and to the loving service 
of our Lord is the bell that calls us to the 
most joyful views of his countenance. When 
we draw nigh to him in humble obedience, 
he draws nigh to us in the full-orbed bright- 
ness of his favor. 



TREASURES IN HEAVEN. 



TT seems like investing one's good things a 
-*- long way off to be "laying up treasures 
in Heaven." But this is a mistake. Heaven 
is very near to God's children. The leagues 
thither are few and short — shortening every 
hour. Heaven is begun here by a life of 
faith. It is a state, as well as a place. The 
converted soul by regeneration comes into 
a new condition toward God, and this con- 
dition is called the "Kingdom of Heaven 77 
in more than one Bible passage. When two 
pure hearts begin to love, it is the beginning 
of wedlock. Hands are not joined or the ring 
given, but the core-idea of wedlock is reached, 
which is unselfish heart-love. Heaven as a 
state of reconciliation to God and of love for 
him who first loved us is begun on earth. 



342 POINTED PAPERS. 

Heaven as the actual abode of the redeemed 
is very near ; just behind the veil it lies j 
every moment that veil disappears to one 
and another, and they are there! They are 
amid the treasures at God's right hand. A 
share in those treasures belongs to every true 
and earnest follower of Jesus. 

They are of various kinds and character. 
The everlasting hopes of the believer belong 
to these treasures. Paul exclaimed, with 
holy confidence: "I know whom I have be- 
lieved, and that he is able to keep that which 
I have committed to him against that day." 
The great apostle had made Jesus his trustee. 
He had lodged his soul's affections and hopes 
all in Christ's hands, and when he reached 
Heaven he knew that he should find the de- 
posit safe. He had laid up nothing on earth 
for the moth or the thief. All his invest- 
ments were spiritual and Jesus had the 
charge of them. So may every true Chris- 
tian — whether in mansion or in lowly hut — 
congratulate himself that what is dearest to 
him is in the keeping of his Saviour. 



TREASURES IN HEAVEN. 343 

The spiritual results of Paul's life were in 
Heaven. The results of my own poor life 
are there. Brother, yours are there. And 
they will be found to have increased through 
earthly losses. Whatever we give up for Je- 
sus's sake increases our heavenly treasure. 
The money which is sacrificed in order to 
keep a good conscience adds to our heavenly 
wealth. Keeping often impoverishes. Giv- 
ing up enriches. "He that saveth his life 
shall lose it ; he that loseth his life for my 
sake and the Gospel's shall find it" — in 
Heaven. Whatever we lay down here in or- 
der to please Jesus will be "laid up" to our 
account yonder. God is a faithful trustee. 
He keeps his book of remembrance. He will 
reward every one according as his work shall 
be. The wise employment of the ten talents 
or the two talents will be fairly recompensed. 
When we speak of salvation as by grace and 
not "of works " we must not forget that other 
truth, that God will judge us all according to 
our works. They will be laid up there. If 
a sinner's "wages" are paid in Hell, a Chris- 



344 POINTED PAPERS. 

tian's wages are paid in Heaven. How rich 
some of Christ's millionaires will be! Paul 
will have a magnificent inheritance. All that 
he gave up of earthly pelf, profit, fame, ease, 
power, emolument will stand to his credit 
there. All the mighty service he wrought for 
human souls will be to him a shining crown. 
Agrippa will be glad to change thrones with 
him then. John Bunyan, when in jail, com- 
forted himself with the thought that he had 
"rich lordships' 7 in those souls which he had 
led to Jesus. What a Croesus the old tinker 
will be when he gets in full possession of his 
inheritance! How many thousands will come 
and thank John Banyan for leading them to 
Heaven ! 

I love to think of Robert Raikes as sur- 
rounded by hosts of Sunday-school children 
in Paradise. They will be a part of his treas- 
ures, as well as Christ's treasures in Heaven. 
To John Elliott the converted Indian will bei 
a star in his crown. Wilberforce will be en- 
riched by the salvation of liberated bondmen, 
and Franke will be the happier when he 



TREASURES IN HEAVEN. 345 

finds some of his orphans before the throne. 
Faithful pastors, who gave up all prospect of 
worldly emolument in order to spend and be 
spent for Christ, will discover that they have 
made wise investments in the "better coun- 
try." The surrenders made here become rich 
possessions yonder. When we read lately 
that an Evangelist had refused to accept a 
large gift, lest his spiritual influence might 
be curtailed, we said: "That is a good in- 
vestment for Christ. He has put that thou- 
sand pounds out at interest for eternity. 1 ' 

The gains are very steady up there. Poor 
city missionaries and Bible women and fron- 
tier preachers and godly needle women have 
their savings banks at God's right hand. 
Those banks never break. The only change 
in heavenly treasures is from their enlarge- 
ment. There is no corruption within and no 
consumption from without. The moth never 
gnaws there and the burglar never breaks in 
to steal. It is impossible to compute what 
treasures every faithful Christian may be stor- 
ing' away for his long lifetime in glory. God 



346 POINTED PAPERS. 

is a faithful trustee. He keeps his "record 
on high"; and each good deed of love, each 
act of self-denial, each surrender of pride or 
selfishness or human applause for Jesus's sake 
will find sure remembrance there. They all 
come up "as a memorial before God." 

Now, why will not some of my readers who 
are troubled about finding "safe investments" 
just listen to the inducements which Jesus 
holds out? He said once to an aspiring 
young man : " Give up all thou hast and 
come and follow me, and thou shalt have 
treasure in Heaven." To-day he makes the 
same proclamation. "Treasure in Heaven!" 
What is it? Something safer than any thing 
you can toil for here. What is it? Some- 
thing more abundant than any thing you can' 
earn in gold or greenbacks. What is it?j 
Something more enduring than mines or 
broad acres. It is the only real estate in the 
universe. If you will lay down self at Jesus's 
feet and accept him and his. service, you will 
become part owner of Heaven. You will be 
a joint heir of Him who saith : " All that the 



TREASURES IN HEAVEN. 347 

Father hath is mine." All that you give up 
for Jesus will be laid up to your account. 
The souls you lead to Jesus will compose the 
jewelry of your crown. Death strips the self- 
ish, greedy sinner of his treasure and sends 
him into eternity bankrupt. But Death will 
unlock to you the gateway of your Father's 
house and you will come into an inheritance 
that fadeth not away. 



LIGHT AT EYENING-TIME. 



/^^OD'S Word is an inexhaustible jewel- 
^-^ bed. What a gem of the first water is 
this beautiful text: "At evening- time it shall 
be light ! " Like a many-sided diamond, it 
flashes out as many truths as it has polished 
sides. As the diamond has the quality of 
glistening in dim and darksome places, so 
this passage shines brightly in seasons of 
trouble and despondency. Old people may 
well put on their spectacles of faith and see 
what a rare and precious verse it is. The 
people of God who are under a cloud may 
also find in it the foretoken of better things 
to come. 

The passage gleams out from one of the 
olden Jewish prophets — from the prophecies 



LIGHT AT EVENING-TIME. 349 

of Zechariah, of whom we know very little, 
except that he nourished about the time of 
the return from Babylon, 520 years before 
Christ's advent. He is that cheerful seer who 
pictures the streets of Jerusalem as yet to be 
filled with old men leaning on their staffs and 
little boys and girls playing in the streets 
thereof. The text occurs at the close of a 
remarkable passage, which reads as follows 
in a close translation: "And it shall be in 
that day that' there shall not be the light of 
the glittering orbs, but densely thick dark- 
ness. But there shall be one day (it is known 
to Jehovah) when it shall not be day and 
night ; for at the evening-time it shall be 

light." 

Many Bible scholars count this passage to 
be clearly prophetic of the Millennium. Our 
good brothers Tyng and Clark, with all 
the literalistic school, quote it as predicting 
Christ's personal reign, when his "feet shall 
again stand on the Mount of Olives." Into 
that controversy we shall not enter, being 
quite satisfied that, while of that day and 



350 POINTED PAPERS. 

hour knoweth no man, yet "it is known to 
Jehovah." The beautiful text is so rich in 
spiritual suggestions that we are quite satis- 
fied to catch some of the gleamings of the 
diamond. 

I. The very essence of Hope is in this 
inspiring verse. Some of us may recall a 
weary climb from the Yale of Zermatt up 
the rough acclivities of the Riffelberg, amid 
chilling mists and swirling gusts of tempest. 
The icy vapors penetrated to the marrow of 
our bones. At the RifFel all was blinding fog. 
We pushed on and upward, until, as we stood 
upon the Gorner Grat, the mighty caravan of 
clouds moved off and left the "body of the 
heavens in its clearness.' 7 Yonder rose the 
Weisshorn, a pyramid of silver, and the peaks 
of Monte Rosa flashed in crimson and gold. 
We had been suffocated in storm and fog all 
day ; but at evening-time it was light. 

This has been the ten thousand times re- 
peated experience of God's children. Gray- 
haired Jacob, in his loneliness, wails out: 
" Joseph is dead; Simeon is dead; now they 



LIGHT AT EVENING-TIME. 351 

take Benjamin also. All these things are 
against me. 77 Presently the returning cav- 
alcade arrives, to tell him that Joseph is 
governor of Egypt, and that he is invited 
to come and spend his sunset of life in the 
best of the land that Pharaoh can offer. A 
long, troubled day has the patriarch weath- 
ered through ; but at evening-time it is light. 
It is a part of God's discipline with us to hide 
his throne in clouds and darkness. The office 
of faith is to hold fast to the fact that behind 
those clouds a loving Father dwells upon that 
throne. It is the office of hope to look for 
the clearing of the clouds, by and by. If we 
had no storms, we should never appreciate 
the blue sky. The trial of the tempest is the 
preparation for the warm afterglow of sun- 
shine. Blind unbelief is continually railing at 
God, charging him with cruelty and scouting 
the idea of a special providence of all-wise 
love. But faith whispers: "Think it not 
strange, or as though some strange thing 
happened unto thee. God seeth the end 
from the beginning. To the upright there 



352 POINTED PAPERS. 

ariseth light in darkness. All things work 
together for good to them that love him." 
Hope bids us push on and upward. Only 
keep pressing higher and closer to Jesus, in- 
stead of wandering downward into doubt and 
sullen despair. Push upward, and you will 

" Hear Hope singing, sweetly singing, 
Softly in an undertone, 
Singing as if God had taught her 
It is better further on." 

The darkness is thick about thee now, my 
brother ; but the Christian life is a walk of 
faith. God never deceives his children. If 
we but keep fast hold to the Guiding Hand, 
we shall find the road to be not one step 
longer or harder than is best for us. God has 
piloted every saint through this very road and 
up these very hills of difficulty. It will be 
better further on. Every chastening of a be- 
liever's soul lies at the end of a painful or- 
deal. Every success worth the having lies 
at the end of brave, protracted toil. Twenty 
years of storm must be battled through by 



LIGHT AT EVENING-TIME. 353 

Wilberforce and Clarkson before Negro eman- 
cipation is enacted by the British Parliament. 
At evening-time the sky was crimsoned with* 
the flush of victory. 

II. This passage has a beautiful application 
to a Christian old age. Many people have a 
silly dread of growing old and look upon gray 
hairs as a standing libel. But, if life is well 
spent, its Indian Summer ought to bring a 
full granary and a golden leaf. Bunyan' in- 
troduces his Pilgrim to a Land of Beulah, 
where flowers of rare beauty grow and where 
breezes from the Celestial City fan the fur- 
rowed cheek. The spiritual light at the 
gloaming of life becomes mellower ; it is 
strained of mists and impurities. The aged 
believer seems to see deeper into God's Word 
and further into God's Heaven. Not every 
human life has a golden sunset Some suns 
go down under a cloud. At evening-time it 
is cold and dark. I have been looking lately 
at the testimonies left by two celebrated men 
who died during my boyhood. One of them 
was the king of novelists ; the other was the 



354 POINTED PAPERS. 

king of philanthropists. Both had lost their 
fortunes and lost their health. 

The novelist wrote as follows: "The old 
post-chaise gets more shattered at every turn 
of the wheel. Windows will not pull up ; 
doors refuse to open and shut. Sicknesses 
come thicker and faster ; friends become fewer 
and fewer. Death has closed the long, dark 
avenue upon early loves and friendships. I 
look at them as through the grated door of a 
burial-place, filled with monuments of those 
once dear to me. I shall never see the three- 
score and ten and shall be summed up at a 
discount." Ah! that is not a cheerful sunset 
of a splendid literary career. At evening- 
time it looks gloomy and the air smells of the 
sepulchre. 

Listen now to the old Christian philan- 
thropist, whose inner life was hid with Christ 
in God. He writes: "I can scarce under- 
stand why my life is spared so long, except 
it be to show that a man can be just as 
happy without a fortune as with one. Sailors 
on a voyage drink to ' friends astern ' till they 



LIGHT AT EVENING-TIME. 355 

are half-way across ; and after that it is 
'friends ahead.' With me it has been 'friends 
ahead 1 for many a year. 7 ' The veteran pil- 
grim was getting nearer home. The Sun of 
Righteousness flooded his western sky. At 
evening-time it was light. 

III. What a contrast there is between the 
death-bed of the impenitent and that of the 
adopted child of God, whose hope is anchored 
to Jesus. The one is dark ; a fearful looking 
forward to a wrath to come. The other is the 
earnest expectation of an endless day which 
lies beyond the glorious sunset. I have- just 
come from the sick-room of a woman whose 
life is ebbing away amid intense bodily suffer- 
ings. It is one of the most cheerful spots in 
this sorrow-laden world. Jesus is watching 
by that' bedside. He administers the cor- 
dials. He stays up that sinking head. "I 
am with you always " is to her the promise 
and foretoken of that other state of joy, 
" where I am ye shall be also." At even- 
ing-time that chamber of death is light/ 



KNOWING OUR FRIENDS IN HEAYEN. 



r I ^HERE is not enough in the Bible about 
"*• Heaven to satisfy our curiosity ; but 
there is quite enough to satisfy a reasonable 
faith. It is certainly more than a happy con- 
dition of glorified spirits. It is a holy place. 
Such expressions as "a city with founda- 
tions,' 7 a "building" or structure of God, and 
a "habitation" all point to a definite locality. 
Certain characteristics of the abode of the 
blest are clearly indicated. It is a rest that 
remaineth for the people of God. No sin can 
penetrate it, or any thing whatever that de- 
fileth. Neither shall any of its inhabitants 
suffer from sickness or pain. Knowledge 
shall be commensurate with the enlarged 
powers of the glorified soul. We shall know 



KNOWING OUR FRIENDS IN HEAYEN. 357 

even as we are known. Companionship with 
the spirits of the just made perfect will fur- 
nish endlesss variety and unbroken harmony 
of social intercourse. Above all, we shall see 
God, and not die. 

These are among the most distinct truths 
which the Scriptures reveal concerning that 
Jerusalem the Golden whose walls are like 
unto precious stones and whose gates to ori- 
ent pearls. For whom is this celestial habi- 
tation prepared? For beings of other worlds, 
or for those occupants of this globe whom Je- 
sus hath redeemed unto himself? Certainly 
the latter. Christ says to his disciples: "I go 
to prepare a place for you." Where he is, he 
desires that his own shall be also. The occu- 
pants of Heaven shall be those who were once 
occupants of this sinful earth. The transfer 
from earth to Heaven does not (according to 
the only Book which reveals Heaven) destroy 
personal identity. On the contrary, God's 
Word assumes continually that this identity 
will be preserved. The same living organism, 
the same characteristics which made the Pa- 



358 POINTED PAPERS. 

triarch Abraham a different man from every 
body else in Chaldea will make Abraham a 
different person from any one else in Heaven. 
These physical and mental traits enabled his 
neighbors in "Ur" to recognize him. He has 
carried with him into the eternal world also 
such personal characteristics that he is recog- 
nizable there. According to Christ's state- 
ment, the rich man "saw Lazarus in Abra- 
ham's bosom." He also declared that the 
righteous will yet sit down with Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob in that Celestial Kingdom. 
It is preposterous to imagine that these three 
persons are some other persons than those 
who passed by those names on earth. No 
matter what change death and the resurrec- 
tion may produce on the forms or organisms 
known as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The 
body here changes by chemical processes, so 
that there are entirely new particles in my 
physical form from what were there six or 
seven years ago. Yet I am the same person. 
My individuality is not changed in the slight- 
est degree. Lincoln the nursing infant and 



KNOWING OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 359 

Lincoln the noble president were the same 
individual. 

In like manner, Paul before the throne 
is and inevitably must be the identical Paul 
who preached at Athens and was martyred 
at Rome. When he longed to "depart and 
to be with Christ " he expected to be not 
somebody else, but the same individual. Mo- 
ses died fifteen centuries before the advent 
of Jesus Christ. Yet there was a personality 
still existing, who appeared at the time of 
Christ's transfiguration on the mount, and 
who was addressed by him as Moses. The 
Prophet Elijah, who had died seven hun- 
dred years before, was there also. When 
the great apostle speaks of his Thessalonian 
converts as his "glory and joy in the pres- 
ence of the Lord Jesus Christ," he assuredly 
expected to meet the same persons in Heaven 
that he had labored with in Thessalonica. If 
they were not the same people and if he 
could not meet them there, how could they 
be to him a "crown" or a "joy"? 

This point is clearly in accordance with 



360 POINTED PAPERS. 

Scripture and with common sense. What- 
ever change may be produced by death, 
personal identity will not be altered by one 
jot or tittle. The sinner who sins here will 
be the same sinner who will be punished in 
the world of woe. The believer who is wel- 
comed with the glad salute " Come, thou 
blessed of my Father ! " will be the same 
person who on earth had done the Father's 
bidding. Without this preservation of per- 
fect identity the whole idea of a future retri- 
bution of rewards and punishments would be 
an absurd impossibility. 

If identity is preserved in eternity, will the 
faculty of memory also survive the grave ? 
Undoubtedly it will. The obliteration of 
memory would amount to a partial destruc- 
tion of the individual. It would remove 
some of Heaven's richest enjoyments. If 
I can not remember what rny Redeemer has 
done and suffered for me, how can I join in 
the ever "new song" of grateful praise be- 
fore his throne? The obliteration of memory 
would take away the severest and the bitter- 



KNOWING OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 361 

est of sin's just retributions in Hell. Upon 
this point the description of Lazarus and of 
the selfish rich man "in torment" throws a 
distinct light, for Abraham said: "Son, remem- 
ber that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy 
good things." 

Put now together these two facts : (1) per- 
sonal identity is not lost in eternity, and 
(2) memory remains also unimpaired. It fol- 
lows inevitably that we shall know each other 
in Heaven. When David cried out, over his 
dead boy, "I shall go to him; but he shall 
not return to me ! " that bereaved father ex- 
pected to meet again the child whose spirit 
had flown home to God. Certainly, we shall 
not be more stupid in Heaven than we are on 
earth. If I could recognize such a person as 
Chalmers in his pulpit, I can not fail to recog- 
nize that same servant of God in his celestial 
apparelling. Martin Luther, in his "Table 
Talks," makes much of this intercourse with 
father and mother and kindred in the heav- 
enly home. Sharp, unpoetic old Doctor Em- 
mons used to say: "I hope to have some 



362 POINTED PAPERS. 

talks with the Apostle Paul in Heaven.' 7 
And who of us would not experience a fear- 
ful shock, even amid the hallelujah raptures 
of Paradise, if the sweet affections of kinship 
were to be obliterated forever? Surely, God \ 
would not so punish those whom he loves to 
bless. 

That infants will be doomed to the ever- 
lasting weakness and helplessness and igno- 
rance, of infancy seems, to my mind, impossi- 
ble. No mother would ever want to see her 
darling babe stunted to an unchanged baby- 
hood even here. It would become a pitiable 
monstrosity. Half the charm of childhood is 
its constant growth ; its delightful openings, 
like the rosebud, to new thought and devel- 
opment. The idea of an undeveloped infancy 
in Heaven would be almost a libel on the 
Creator ! My darling boy will be none the 
less my own child in the "Father's House" 
because (like another child at Nazareth) he 
has increased in stature and knowledge, and 
in favor with God and man. That I shall 
know him there — if God's rich grace doth 



KNOWING OUR FRIENDS IN HEAVEN. 363 

bring me there — I have no more doubt of 
than I have of the existence of a heavenly 
rest. Good Dean Alford struck a chord in 
every Christian heart, when he sang: 

"Oh! then what raptured greetings, 
On Heaven's happy shore ; 
What knitting severed friendships tip, 
Where partings are no more!" 



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Cheever's Lectures on Bunyan 2 



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